"The year was 2004 and Felipe and Letizia - today Kings of Spain - chose Cuenca for their first stop as newlyweds. The image, crossing the San Pablo Bridge, in Cuenca, propped up this monument , a heritage symbol, as an icon and a 'mandatory' step for a romantic and family photo in the visits organized to this beautiful city, a World Heritage Site. .
Painted in a beautiful vermilion tone, the San Pablo bridge is part of the spirit of Cuenca, and is as appreciated by the people of Cuenca as by the thousands of visitors who want to contemplate and enjoy a panoramic view, which before the Kings of Spain, crossed writers such as Pío Baroja - who spoke of him as a "five-legged elephant" -, Federico García Lorca, and some authors who have called him "the iron staple."
An artistic inspiration
National and international painters such as Fernando Zóbel (member of the El Paso Group) have also captured the beauty and splendor of this colossus, who brought the first camera with which the bridge was photographed on the same day of its inauguration. It has also been reflected in some of his paintings, such as the one titled 'The Bridge'. Like the artist Alfredo Lam (born in Cuba), who has toured this monument through the great museums of the world, and Pepe España, who have universalized this bridge in all his oil paintings, recalls the official chronicler of Cuenca, Miguel Romero Sáiz.
The chronicler recalls that the bridge has also been a set for some feature films. Thus, films such as 'Pipermint Frappe', 'Calle Mayor', the short film 'Cuenca', by Carlos Saura, 'Everything is a Lie' and some television series have been recorded . Stories that mark the anecdotes of what this bridge contains and what its historical past has been.
Romero says that it has always been kept in very good condition, with well-maintained accesses, good lighting and even with some projectors that illuminate the structure and the Hanging Houses, creating a beautiful nighttime image of the entire monumental complex. Its magnificent iron structure unites two icons of Cuenca: the Hanging Houses and the old Convent of San Pablo, today converted into a National Tourism Parador. It is an icon that, together with the Hanging Houses and the Hoz del Huécar, offers a panoramic view of a corner so special for everyone.
His construction
St. Paul's Bridge has been there since the 16th century, when the Dominican friars of the St. Paul's convent decided to create the footbridge to avoid the path down to the river and the subsequent climb to the city. Its difference from other bridges is that it was not built to cross a river but a ravine.
Firstly, the convent was founded on the rocky promontory, around 1523, at the initiative of canon Don Juan del Pozo , a great promoter of Cuenca architecture. The first bridge, the stone one, began to be built around the middle of the 16th century, recalls the Cuenca chronicler.
Under the motto 'Delicious Cuenca', the city is preparing to compete, for the third time, in this event. The proposal to take the stoves to the streets
Two great architects are linked to the San Pablo bridge: Francisco de Luna and Andrés de Vandelvira. The first one laid out the bridge and the second one took it up again years later and had to modify some aspects because he came to draw traces on it. The bridge was raised slowly until the last years of the 16th century.
The stone bridge was doomed to disappear. It was even said that it was demolished, as there was no project to dismantle it stone by stone and reassemble it, correcting its geometric dysfunctions. In the end, after a century and a half, on March 29, 1895, the stone bridge was demolished, making way for the current bridge.
BIRTHDAY
After different vicissitudes, on April 19, 1903, the current iron bridge, the work of José María Fuster, was inaugurated. It was built in iron, due to the cheapness of the material at that time, as it was fashionable. The Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Portugalete suspension bridge (Vizcaya) are other examples of this type of monument. The San Pablo bridge cost 60,000 pesetas and more than 67 tons of iron were used. It measures 30 meters high and 106 meters long.
Miguel Romero reviews that the news of that time reported that it was necessary to use 67,000 kilos of iron on the bridge to check if it was resistant and, above all, safe. Today, as the previous stone bridge, the San Pablo bridge, was for centuries, it continues to be an example to boast of the engineering and history of Spain."
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