Ponts Couverts de Strasbourg
Four medieval towers and stone spans guarding the point where the river splits into four defensive channels.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Ponts Couverts in Strasbourg centers on Daniel Specklin, a self-taught engineer who talked his way from embroiderer to the city's official architect and spent years worrying over the one gap where the river Ill splits into four channels through the ramparts. You'll hear how he drove spur-shaped bastions into the current to close it, and how the older medieval towers above them changed jobs over the centuries, one becoming a prison whose cramped cells still carry centuries of graffiti. Look closely at the stone piers below the bridges for the spurs Specklin built to bite anything that tried to slip past.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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