The Cellar Image of the Day

Built to reflect a perfect circle, but only if the water is smooth and the level constant.
This one is in Germany’s Kromlau Park just four miles from the Polish border.

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Unlike such landmarks as the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, these sites do not make the front page of a travel guide, but they do provide an extraordinary experience. Across Europe, oftentimes lurking hidden in nature or in the proximity of some lesser-known city, are the so-called Devil’s Bridges.
These are typically very old arch bridges, splendid examples of masonry workmanship, and in the times in which they were built, they made for a great technological and architectural achievement. What’s even more interesting is that these Devil’s Bridges are associated with folklore. As the name of the bridge goes, one of the main characters in the tale is, of course, the Devil himself.

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As mentioned, Europe has many of these bridges. France alone possesses around 50, and they are known as Pond du Diable. They can also be found in Italy, under the name Ponte del Diavolo. More can be seen in almost any corner of the old continent, from Portugal on the Atlantic Ocean to Estonia on the Baltic, or from the United Kingdom in the northwest to Romania and Bulgaria on the Balkans. But probably the most spectacular example of this type of bridge is nearly hidden in Kromlau Park, the largest park to be found in the German region of Saxony.

Most of the Devil’s Bridges in Europe were erected in the medieval days, or to be more exact, in the period between 1000 and 1600 AD. However Rakotzbrücke appears to be a bit newer than that. This bridge was completed in 1860, after its construction had been commissioned by local town authorities. The marvelous piece blends fieldstone and basalt in certainly one of the finest examples of its kind. In order to compose the basalt columns, the bridge builders needed to ship the material from far away quarries.

In the first episode of Hinterland (which takes place in Wales) the story of (a) Devil's Bridge is told.

A woman has lost her dog, that happens to turn up on the far side of an uncrossable river.

The woman is at a loss as to how to recover her beloved dog.

The devil his own self shows up and offers to help the woman by building her a bridge to cross the river and, thus, recover her beloved pet. The devil, always looking for souls, tells the woman the cost of the bridge will be the soul of the first person to cross it, and that he will take her soul when she crosses the bridge in the morning.

The woman gets to the river the next morning, and sure enough, there's a big nice bridge spanning the river. Seeing her dog on the other side of the river, she reaches into her bag and pulls out a fresh-baked loaf of bread, calls to the dog, and tosses a piece of bread halfway across the bridge. The dog, being hungry from not having eaten, goes to the piece of bread. When he's eaten it, she shows him the rest of the loaf, calls to him and the dog crosses the rest of the way and the woman goes home with her dog, having cheated the devil out of her soul.

The devil was so embarrassed at being cheated by the old woman that he never set foot in Wales again.

Or something like that.

The story of the Rakotzbrücke is unusual and different from most of the human vs Satan tales that are told locally with these bridges. The human wanted the bridge to help the village and crossed the bridge sacrificing himself.

In the first grouping the lower left one is also in the winter . It is hard to tell if it is black and white, but is my favorite one.
From hits on Google it may be a runner-up to the GG Bridge in photo popularity.