Marco Polo Bridge

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Marco Polo Bridge (2005)
Historical representation of the bridge

The Marco Polo Bridge or Lugou Qiao ( Chinese  蘆溝橋  /  卢沟桥 , Pinyin lúgōuqiáo  - "Reed Gutter Bridge ") is a stone arch bridge in Beijing's Fengtai district that spans the Yongding He River. It was completed in 1192.

Designations

The Chinese name of the bridge is Lúgōuqiáo and roughly means reed cane bridge . The building was given the nickname Marco Polo Bridge because Marco Polo mentions it in his travelogues (" Il Milione "), but with 24 arches and pillars, it does not reflect reality . He calls the bridge “Pulisanghin”, “Bridge of the Sang-Kan”, whereby “Sang-Kan” was the name commonly used at the time for the river.

Building description

Bridge deck (2005)
Lion Figures (2005)

The Marco Polo Bridge is 235 m long and has eleven bridge arches, with each individual arch segment spanning 21.60 m. The roadway of the bridge is 9.30 m wide and consists of large stone blocks.

The 250 stone railing parts carry stone guardian lions . The exact number of lions is difficult to determine, because next to and on top of the large lions are numerous smaller lion figures, often only a few centimeters in size.

history

The Marco Polo Bridge comes from the Minchang period of the Jin Dynasty (1190–1208). Construction began in 1189 and completed in 1192. At the time, it was one of the eight most beautiful views of Beijing under the title Lugou Xiaoyue (Moon Over Lugou at Dawn ) . She kept this title through the Yuan , Ming and Qing Dynasties . At the time of construction, the bridge was the only access to the Middle Capital .

In the 17th century, the original arches were washed away during an extraordinary flood and then rebuilt on the old foundations with the same number of arches . The date of the reconstruction of the bridge under Emperor Kangxi of the Qing dynasty is given as the year 1698 on a bridge stele .

In 1751, Emperor Qianlong personally recorded the poetic titles of the Eight Most Beautiful Views on steles. The stele belonging to the bridge is still near the bridge.

On July 7, 1937, the bridge became the scene of the incident at the Marco Polo Bridge . The firefight between Japanese and Chinese soldiers is considered to be the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War and thus gave the bridge a special historical significance in modern times .

In 1969 the bridge was extended and adapted to modern traffic requirements. Since then, the Yongding has almost completely dried up.

See also

literature

  • Marcel Prade: Les grands ponts du monde. Volume 2: Hors d'Europe. Brissaud, Poitiers 1990, ISBN 2-902170-68-8 , p. 218 ( Art & patrimoine 8).

Web links

Commons : Lugou Bridge  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Elise Guignard : Marco Polo, Il Milione. The wonders of the world. Translation from old French sources and afterword. Manesse, Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-7175-1646-9 ; Reprinted by Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. / Leipzig 2009 (= Insel taschenbuch 2981), ISBN 978-3-458-34681-4 , pp. 153–154; Appendix: Geographical Names, p. 432
  2. ↑ cf. Paul Pelliot : Notes on Marco Polo. Paris 1963, p. 834
  3. ↑ Frances Wood : Marco Polo did not get to China . Secker & Warburg, London 1995, ISBN 3-492-03886-7 .
  4. ↑ Marco Polo Bridge (Lugouqiao) , bridge length and number of arches
  5. ^ The fantastic journeys of Marco Polo. TV documentary (ZDF, 1996) by Hans-Christian Huf

Coordinates: 39 ° 50 ′ 56.5 ″  N , 116 ° 12 ′ 46.4 ″  E