The sun going down the Pont Vell in Manresa

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Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
26 March 2023 Sunday 10:44
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The sun going down the Pont Vell in Manresa

* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia

It seems in these images in Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia that the sun wanted to go down the Pont Vell in Manresa. Built on the Cardener River, it is located at the entrance to the city, forming one of its most characteristic silhouettes.

It is a Romanesque bridge with eight semicircular arches, one of which was partially bricked up when the Esparreguera road was built, to the right of the river.

It is 113 meters long, 3.60 meters wide and 25 meters high above the level of the riverbed. As can be seen in the photographs, it presents the classic donkey-back silhouette of many medieval bridges, with the most slender central arch, of Roman tradition, and the others in symmetrical degradation on both sides.

We can also observe how on both sides of the main arch there is a window or discharge arch, in order to offer less resistance in the event of a flood.

The bridge was partly destroyed at the end of the civil war, but the architect J. Pons Sorolla restored its central arches in the years 1960-62 and returned it to its original state.