A perfect arch that, reflected in the river, turns into a circle worthy of Giotto. It is precisely this "perfection" that has won the reputation of the Devil's Bridge at the Rakotz Bridge. We are in the Azalea and Rhododendron Park Kromlau, in the heart of Saxony, and this bridge was purpose built to create a perfect circle when reflected in water. It was commissioned in 1860 by knight Friedrich Hermann Rotschke and was built with basalt from the Swiss quarries.
Rotschke was the owner of the entire area and it was always he who financed the entire park, where he had thousands of azaleas and rhododendrons planted that still bloom today, again in May. Having very different tastes from his contemporaries, the knight did not want an ordinary bridge, but rather a passage without handrails or barriers, decidedly different from the nineteenth-century architectural typologies.
The works finish ten years later, thus feeding a series of "strange voices". The eccentricity of the bridge was interpreted by the Germans with mystical-symbolic meanings: not a simple connection between the two shores, but a door that delimited the border between heaven and hell, thus acquiring the name of Ponte del diavolo.
Open 24/7
Rakotzbrecke Bridge
Address: Old Castle 11 02953 Gablenz, OT Kromlau
Phone: 03576 222828
Site:
http://kromlau-online.de/Location inserted by
Culturalword Abco