wasabiroots
1. The Devil’s Bridge, everywhere
There are a lot of bridges that carries this name especially ancient arch bridges around Europe. Maybe its the new architecture at the time that just seems impossible for the people. Think about it in their shoes. How is a strip of land able to just suspend in the air with columns very far apart, not to mention, the bridge is over a river or canal and sure, now we know its all about the engineering calculations about weight, load, tension and compression to make an arch bridge but the fear of high places and the fear of falling could have risen the sense of death and of course the devil. You know, unjust death. Since there are numerous stories about devil bridges, I will focus on one of them. The Pont Du Diable or Pont Vieux is a medieval stone arch bridge at Céret, France. It was built between the year 1321 and 1341.
The legend goes like this and bare in mind that most of the others have a similar storyline like this one as well.
A long time ago, locals wanted a bridge across the river but the river was too wide for them to construct a normal bridge. So who do they turn to, of course the Devil. They even managed to call him to make an agreement. The Devil gave them a condition which was, he could claim the first soul to ever cross the bridge as payment. Typical devil transaction. Thus, both parties agreed and the devil actually built them the bridge and once the bridge was built, locals were deliberating because no one wants to be the first to cross the bridge or their souls would be taken. This is when they proposed using an animal to be the first one to cross. They chose a cat and made the cat cross the bridge first. They didn’t say what happened to the cat but it did took years until locals were brave enough to cross the bridge.