The Stone Bridge

An old legend tells that a cathedral and a bridge over the Danube were once to be built in Regensburg. The master builder of the bridge and the master builder of the cathedral made a bet on who would finish first. The

The ambitious but also very cunning master bridge builder secretly made a pact with the devil afterwards.

He promised him the first three souls to cross the bridge. The devil helped, and the bridge was soon complete. But at the opening, the builder sent a rooster, a hen and a dog across first. The devil grew terribly angry and tried to destroy the bridge. He failed, but ever since then the structure has had a hump. Whether the story

right? It’s probably better to believe only what you know for sure.

It is true that a bridge over the Danube was built in Regensburg long before the cathedral was constructed. It is now almost 900 years old and is considered one of the oldest bridges in Germany. It is still called the Stone Bridge today, because bridges built of stone rather than wood were very rare at the time.

Construction began in 1135, and it was completed just eleven years later. For a long time, it was the only bridge over the Danube between Ulm and Vienna. In the Middle Ages, it was considered a true wonder of the world. Originally, 16 piers supported the enormous weight of the structure, which is now 308.71 metres long. Only 14 piers can still be seen; two have since disappeared beneath other buildings. There were once three bridge towers, but only the southern tower remains.

Each pier is protected from the current and drifting ice by pointed artificial islands. The bridge was important not only to the city of Regensburg, but to the whole country. On 11 May 1189, 15,000 armed horsemen set off from here on a crusade led by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, with the aim of driving Muslims out of Jerusalem. In the centuries that followed, several important long-distance routes crossed the bridge. On the one hand, it was a source of prosperity because it encouraged trade.

Merchants and other travellers had to pay a toll to cross the bridge, bringing revenue to the town. But the bridge was repeatedly damaged by wars and floods, leading to costly repairs. When Swedish soldiers approached during the Thirty Years’ War, one of the bridge arches was blown up.

For many decades, a wooden structure bridged the gap. From 1903, a tram ran across the bridge, which first required an opening to be created through the southern bridge gate. The worst damage occurred in 1945. At the end of World War II, German soldiers blew up several piers in an attempt to delay the advance of American troops. The bridge was repaired after the war. But then car traffic increased sharply. Because the bridge suffered greatly as a result, it was eventually closed to cars, trucks and trams. Today, it is reserved for pedestrians and cyclists.