Puente del Obispo
Puente del Obispo is a historic road bridge in Andalusia in the province of Jaén from the 16th century. The building, inaugurated in 1508, crosses the Río Guadalquivir at km 17.670 and connects the cities of Baeza and Jaén .
history
The Bishop of Jaén, Alonso de la Fuente del Sauce , financed the construction work to remove the problems caused by the annual flooding that made the roads between the two major cities of Baeza and Jaén impassable. The bridge with an arch height of around six meters was built between 1505 and 1508 under the direction of the builder Pedro de Mazuecos .
The arch bridge consists of four unequal barrel vaults made of ashlar sandstone. It is 136 meters long and around 10 meters wide. There is a chapel on the bridge .
On a plaque on the bridge is the inscription in Gothic letters:
“ Este puente se llama del Obispo. Hízola toda a su costa D. Alonso de la Fuente del Sauce, Obispo que fue de Mondoñedo y después de Lugo y en el año 1500, de Jahen. Y dejó el paso libre de ella. Y es libre de todos, sin pagar tributo alguno. Comenzada el año mil y quinientos y cinco, y acabada el año mil y quinientos y ocho. Y concede a los que pasaran y rezaren un Ave-María, quarenta días de Perdón "
In 1940, as part of an extensive restoration, the half-ruined chapel, which had been badly damaged during the Spanish Civil War , was rebuilt. Currently, the main traffic is routed over a newly built bridge. The historical and listed bridge was largely relieved of normal traffic in 1950. The photo shows the current state after the renovation in 1940.
swell
- Pilar Chías Navarro & Tomás Abad Balboa: Puentes de España. FCC Madrid 1994, page 142, ISBN 84-920207-0-9
Coordinates: 37 ° 57 '15.2 " N , 3 ° 32' 22.3" W.