One of the sights of the old town is Dragon Bridge which was built in 1900 and has the honour of being the first concrete bridge in the city, something which might surprise and delight my friend Liam who likes civil engineering things. It was originally named the Jubilee Bridge of Emperor Franz Joseph I (the then Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary) but global politics rather changed after the First World War and it took its current name in 1919.
The Dragon Bridge replaced the Butchers’ Bridge which had been constructed in 1819 but was made of wood and needed some updating. Wood wasn’t strong enough for their new bridge, stone was too expensive and so concrete seemed the best plan, supervised by the architect Professor Josef Melan (1854-1951). Some sources note that the reason the concrete bridge was built here, rather than in Vienna, was that it would cause less fuss here if it fell down. Incidentally, it seems that none of Melan’s bridges collapsed, so he must have known what he was doing.
Here’s a photo from the late nineteenth century of the old Butchers’ Bridge.
The dragon elements were designed by Jurij Zaninović (1874-1946).
Anyway, it’s a rather lovely bridge, but we didn’t linger for too long as Bev commented negatively on the refreshing wind that was blowing down the river….