DEVIL’S BRIDGE IN KROMLAU
Holidays have begun and that is when people set out for trips – sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. Be it, therefore, that we want to show you a structure this time which is located near the Polish border – 60 km from the town of Żagań. We hope for this text to be an inspiration for a live tour of the bridge and the nearby park in Kromlau.
In 1844, Friedrich Hermann Rötschke, inspired by the Pückler Park in Muskau, decided to create his own garden. The garden has grown over the years and now covers the area of 81 hectares – it is one of the largest parks in Saxony. The oldest trees were planted by the owner in the middle of the 19th century and many of them still grow today.
The park is mainly planted with rhododendrons (i. e. azaleas and rhododendrons), so it is worth visiting in May. The first rhododendrons were brought to Kromlau by Georg Eichler, one of the founders of the German Dendrological Society. The plants came from Georgia and the Caucasus, among others. However, the park is beautiful in summer, too, when many other plants bloom.
In the park there is Lake Rakotz and a bridge over it which was built almost 150 years ago. It is an arch bridge made of stone and basalt from quarries in Saxon Switzerland. It took ten years to extract the stone to decorate the park and build the bridge. But among the building materials, you may also find stones from more distant places, such as the Czech Republic or Scandinavia.
The bridge was put in service in 1860. Local people called it the Devil’s Bridge (Teufelsbrücke) – like several other arch buildings from this period.
The bridge was built with great precision, thanks to which it has a specific feature: the bridge and its reflection in the lake surface form a complete circle. This peculiarity attracts many enthusiastic photographers – both amateurs and professionals.
Unfortunately, the bridge is relatively shaky due to its age and it is no longer possible to walk on it. But it is quite easy to find places with amazing views, from where you can admire its „devilish“ construction.
Many visitors to Kromlau say that the genius loci of this bridge would have been very well suited for the filming of Tolkien‘s Lord of the Rings trilogy, or its adaptation.
Source: Kurier kamieniarski
Author: Kurier Kamieniarski | Published: 04 July 2017
