Bridge of Arta
A stone bridge whose building legend involves human sacrifice.
The Bridge of Arta is a stone bridge crossing the Arachthos river west of the city of Arta in northwestern Greece. It has been rebuilt many times, with foundations possibly dating to Roman times, while the current structure is likely a 17th-century Ottoman construction. The bridge is notable for the folk ballad that tells of a human sacrifice during its building, which gave rise to Greek proverbs about endless delays.
Quick Facts
- Carries
- Pedestrian (footbridge)
- Crosses
- Arachthos River
- Locale
- Arta, Greece
- Owner
- Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports
- Material
- Stone
- Spans
- 4
- Complete
- 1612
Facts from the source article.
History
The bridge at Arta may date back to the Roman Empire, according to a local chronicler. Local stories suggest it was rebuilt when Arta served as the capital of the Despotate of Epirus, perhaps under Michael II Doukas. The stone bridge standing today was built during the Ottoman period, likely between 1602 and 1606, or possibly in 1613. For over thirty years, from 1881 until 1912, the bridge’s highest point marked the frontier between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Greece.
Folklore
The folk ballad, belonging to the acritic songs family, describes 45 masons and 60 apprentices under a Head Builder constructing a bridge whose foundations collapsed each night. A bird with a human voice told the Head Builder that he must sacrifice his wife for the bridge to stand. As she was buried alive in the foundations, she cursed the bridge to flutter like a leaf and those who pass it to fall like leaves. She then remembered her brother might cross the bridge, so she changed her curses to blessings: the bridge would tremble like tall mountains, and passers would fall like birds of prey. Immurement appears in other Balkan folklore, such as the Serbian poem The Building of Skadar and the Romanian poem The Argeș Monastery. A similar legend involves Vortigern, whose tower collapsed nightly until a child was sacrificed and his blood mixed with the mortar.
More in Human Sacrifice in Folklore and Mythology
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