Dragon Bridge (Ljubljana)

Dragon Bridge
Crosses Ljubljanica River
Locale Ljubljana, Slovenia
Characteristics
Design Arch bridge
Longest span 33.34 metres (109.4 ft)
History
Opened 1901

The Dragon Bridge (Slovene: Zmajski most, historically also Zmajev most)[1] is a road bridge located in Ljubljana,[2] the capital of Slovenia. It crosses the Ljubljanica River.[3][4] between Kopitar Street (Kopitarjeva ulica) and Ressel Street (Resljeva cesta),[5] to the north of the Ljubljana Central Market at Vodnik Square.[6] It was built in the beginning of the 20th century, when Ljubljana was part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. As one of the best examples of reinforced concrete bridges and of the Vienna Secession style, the bridge is today protected as a technical monument.[7] It is intended primarily for motorised traffic.

Name

The bridge was originally named The Jubilee Bridge of the Emperor Franz Josef I (German: Franz Josef I. Jubiläumsbrücke, Slovene: Franca Jožefa I. jubilejni most). In July 1919, it was renamed to Dragon Bridge.[5]

History

The Butchers' Bridge and Ressel Square before 1882
A postcard with a photograph of the unveiling of the Dragon Bridge in October 1901

The bridge was built as part of a wider urban renovation of the town during the administration of the mayor Ivan Hribar.[2] It replaced an old oak bridge named Butchers' Bridge (Mesarski most),[1] which was constructed in 1819[3] and damaged by a severe earthquake in 1895.[2] For economic reasons, the municipal authorities took the decision to finance a reinforced concrete construction of the new bridge instead of a more expensive and less fashionable stone one.[3] Janez Koželj, a professor of urban design, expressed in 2010 his opinion that the new technology of reinforced concrete and new static calculations were used in Ljubljana instead of Vienna, because it meant minor consequences if they had not worked.[8]

The new bridge was constructed upon the plans of Vienna company Pittel+Brausewetter based on a patent by Austrian engineer Josef Melan and the design by the company's architect Giorgio Zaninovich, the graduate of Otto Wagner's school.[9] The works started on 1 July 1900 and were at first led by Austrian engineer Alexander Zabokrzycky, assisted by Filip Supančič from Ljubljana. After a dispute, the works were in April 1901 taken over by the architect Ciril Metod Koch, also from Ljubljana. The bridge was solemnly opened for traffic on 4 October 1901 by Anton Bonaventura Jeglič, the Bishop of Ljubljana, in the presence of many distinguished guests, including Zaninović, Melan and Brausewetter.[9] The final works were completed until 1907. The dragons were designed by Zaninović and produced in the Vienna factory A. M. Beschorner. When the bridge was completed, it was dedicated to Franz Joseph I of the Habsburg Dynasty to commemorate forty years of his rule from 1848 to 1888.[7]

In 1983 and 1984, the Dragon Bridge was renovated with lightweight concrete,[10] and its centennial was celebrated in 2001.[7]

Architecture

The Dragon Bridge, although significantly modelled after the Nußdorf weir,[9] is often regarded as the most beautiful bridge produced by the Vienna Secession.[7] It is the first bridge in Slovenia paved with asphalt, the first reinforced concrete bridge in Ljubljana, and one of Europe's earliest reinforced concrete bridges.[3] When opened in 1901, it had the third largest arch in Europe at that time. The bridge is built to the Melan System invented by Josef Melan, which gained popularity particularly in the United States and Germany because the bridges could be built without a supporting stage.[7] Rigid truss arches made of iron are set into the reinforced concrete bridge.[7] The load-bearing core of the bridge were the truss iron frames during construction. After concreting these became a part of the supporting structure.

Dragon Bridge is a triple-hinged arch bridge and has a span of 33.34 metres (109 ft 5 in).[7] Its style was designed by Jurij Zaninović.[3] He envisaged the concrete covering, the balustrades and the sheet-copper dragon statues of the bridge,[11] which became a symbol of the city.[3] The chief attraction of the bridge are these four dragon statues standing on pedestals at its four corners.[12] In addition, the bridge is decorated by sixteen smaller dragon statues.[11]

Legend

There is a legend that Jason was the founder of Ljubljana, and he and his Argonauts killed a dragon.[13] This is one of the four dragon statues in the bridge.[13] According to local legends, when a virgin crosses the bridge, the dragons will wag their tails.[12][14] Some local people have nicknamed this structure "mother-in-law" because of its fiery nature.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 Potočnik, A. (June 1927). "Ljubljana: b) Ljubljanski mostovi". Zvonček. 28 (10): 229. ISSN 1855-7287.
  2. 1 2 3 Zmajski most at Structurae
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 The Dragon Bridge, the city's official tourist site.
  4. ↑ Ljubljana – A lively city, safe under the wings of a dragon International Associations of Business Communicators (IABC)
  5. 1 2 "Kako so Ljubljančani pospravili za Habsburžani in se prikupili novim oblastnikom" [How the Residents of Ljubljana Cleaned After the Habsburgs and Won the New Authority Over]. MMC RTV Slovenija. RTV Slovenija. 10 March 2012.
  6. ↑ Fallon, Steve (2010). Slovenia (6th ed.). Lonely Planet. p. 76. ISBN 9781741048575.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Humar, Gorazd (September 2001). "World Famous Arch Bridges in Slovenia: The Dragon Bridge in Ljubljana (1901)". In Charles Abdunur. Arch'01: troisième Conférence internationale sur les ponts en arc Paris:. Paris: Presses des Ponts. pp. 124–125. ISBN 2-85978-347-4.
  8. ↑ Grujičić, Petra (11 September 2010). "Mostovi ne povezujejo samo rečnih bregov" [Bridges Do not Only Link River Banks]. Delo. p. 20.
  9. 1 2 3 Prelovšek, Damjan (1975). "Ljubljanski mostovi v drugi polovici 19. in v začetku 20. stoletja" [The Bridges of Ljubljana in the Second Half of the 19th Century and the First Half of the 20th Century]. Kronika: časopis za slovensko krajevno zgodovino [The Chronicle: the Newspaper for the Slovenian History of Places] (in Slovenian). Association of Slovenian Historical Societies, Section for the History of Places. 23 (1): 29–37. ISSN 0023-4923.
  10. ↑ "Architectural Heritage: Ljubljana, Dragon Bridge". www.slovenia.info. Slovenian Tourist Board. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  11. 1 2 "Med mostovi slovenske prestolnice" [Among the Bridges of the Slovenian Capital]. MMC RTV Slovenia (in Slovenian). RTV Slovenia. 28 March 2008.
  12. 1 2 3 McKelvie, Robin. McKelvie, Jenny (2008). "What To See". Slovenia: The Bradt Travel Guide. Bradt Travel Guides. p. 75. ISBN 1-84162-119-6.
  13. 1 2 Walter Cummins, Thomas E. Kennedy (2005). The Literary Traveler. Del Sol Press. p. 62. ISBN 0-9748229-3-0.
  14. ↑ Fallon, Steve (2004). Slovenia. Lonely Planet. p. 65. ISBN 1-74104-161-9.

Media related to Dragon Bridge at Wikimedia Commons
Coordinates: 46°03′07″N 14°30′37″E / 46.051947°N 14.510241°E / 46.051947; 14.510241

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