I have many stories still to write, edit and publish from last year, but now I present a few posts from October this year, when Jennifer and I went to Slovenia. Then during the cold winter months I will come back to the stories from last year.
Ponte del Diavolo – The Devil’s Bridge – crosses the emerald green Natisone river at Cividale del Friuli. Cividale del Friuli is in northeast Italy at the foothills of the eastern Alps. We visited it after having flown into Venice and were on our way to the Slovenian Alps and made a stop at Cividale.
Julius Caesar made a Forum at the place and the name changed into Forum Iulii (Julius marketplace). Forum Iulii soon became the chief town in the district and gave its name to the district – Friuli. In 1420 Cividale was annexed by the Republic of Venice and after a short spell under Napoleon it became part of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia and later the Kingdom of Italy in 1866.
Cividale is split in two towns by the Natisone river which brings lots of water in the spring and early summer from the Alps to the Dalmatian Sea. The river has cut out a deep gorge through the mountains. The river banks were joined from around 1200 by a wooden bridge, and the townspeople wanted to replace it by a stone bridge.
However, the work with the bridge was more difficult than expected, so the town engaged the help of the devil. They made a deal with the devil that he should build the bridge and in return he demanded the soul of the first to pass over the bridge.
The devil completed the work in one night (as we all know the devil’s work mainly takes place over the dark hours). But the next morning the good inhabitants of Cividale made sure that the first to cross the bridge was a cat. The devil had to settle for the soul of the cat and the town had its bridge.
The bridge is built of two arches and is 50 m long and 22 m high above the river. Along one side of the riverbank near the bridge is the Monastero Santa Maria in Valle built into the side of the cliffs and with an attractive garden walk overlooking the picturesque river of Natisone.
The medieval centre of Cividale is very attractive with cobbled streets and beautiful squares. Not far from the bridge is the Duomo (cathedral) and the Town Hall with a statue of Julius Caesar. In 2011 the town was made into a World Heritage Site.
