The Macestus Bridge or Bridge of Sultançayır was a
Roman bridge
The ancient Romans were the first civilization to build large, permanent bridges. Early Roman bridges used techniques introduced by Etruscan immigrants, but the Romans improved those skills, developing and enhancing methods such as arches and ke ...
across the
Macestus River ( tr, Simav or ''Susurluk Çayı'') at
Balıkesir
Balıkesir () is a city in Turkey and is the capital city of Balıkesir Province. Balıkesir is located in the Marmara region of Turkey and has a population of 338,936. Between 1341–1922, it was the capital of Karasi.
History
Close to mo ...
, in the northwestern part of modern-day
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. Its flattened
arch
An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it.
Arches may be synonymous with vaul ...
es, slender
piers and the hollow chamber system documented the progress made in
late antique
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English has ...
bridge building. A first cursory investigation of the 234 m long structure was conducted in the early 20th century, but since then its existence has been largely neglected by scholars. Current photos from 2009 show that the bridge has collapsed in the meantime.
Exploration
The bridge is located at
Sultançayır, in the heart of the ancient region of
Mysia, where it carried the road connecting Hadrianu Therai (''
Balıkesir
Balıkesir () is a city in Turkey and is the capital city of Balıkesir Province. Balıkesir is located in the Marmara region of Turkey and has a population of 338,936. Between 1341–1922, it was the capital of Karasi.
History
Close to mo ...
'') with
Miletopolis across the Macestus.
During an exploration tour in 1902, the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
archaeologist
Theodor Wiegand
Theodor Wiegand (October 30, 1864 – December 19, 1936) was one of the more famous German archaeologists.
Wiegand was born in Bendorf, Rhenish Prussia. He studied at the universities of Munich, Berlin, and Freiburg. In 1894 he worked under ...
found the ancient structure still in an excellent state of preservation; only the fourth pier from the eastern bank had been blown up some thirty years before in what was a crude and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to render the river navigable for larger vessels.
Another brief account was given by his
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
colleague
Frederick William Hasluck
Frederick William Hasluck (16 February 1878 – 22 February 1920) was an English antiquarian, historian, and archaeologist.
Hasluck was educated at The Leys School and King's College, Cambridge, graduating with a first class degree in classics i ...
, who also visited Mysia at the time.
Construction
![Makestosbrücke bei Balikesir](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Makestosbr%C3%BCcke_bei_Balikesir.JPG)
The Macestus Bridge has a width of 6.35 m and a length of 234 m, excluding the ramps at both ends.
The distance between the centreline of the piers measures 17.80 m for each of its 13 arches, the clear span being 14.20 m and the pier width, accordingly, 3.60 m.
The slender piers are protected upstream by triangular cutwaters and, owing to a favourable thickness against span ratio of almost 1 to 4, allowed the waterflow to pass the bridge relatively unrestricted. The rise from the springing line to the
keystone is only 4.30 m (see drawing),
giving the arcade a span-to-rise ratio of 3.3 to 1. The bridge is thus one of more than a dozen
ancient segmental arch bridges known today.
Inside, hollow chambers were cut out to save material and reduce the weight resting on the
arch vaults; these spaces are 4.40 m in width, 2.05 m in length, and are all arranged obliquely to the longitudinal axis of the bridge.
Similar hollow chamber constructions are known to exist in other late
Roman bridge
The ancient Romans were the first civilization to build large, permanent bridges. Early Roman bridges used techniques introduced by Etruscan immigrants, but the Romans improved those skills, developing and enhancing methods such as arches and ke ...
s in
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
, such as the
Aesepus Bridge
The Aesepus Bridge ( tr, Güvercin Köprüsü, "Dove Bridge") was a late antique Roman bridge over the Aesepus River (today ''Gönen Çayı'') in the ancient region of Mysia in modern-day Turkey. It is notable for its advanced hollow chamber syste ...
, whose small, slit-like recesses point in the direction of the roadway though.
On the exterior, a pair of arched niches was set into the
spandrel
A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...
wall, with an additional, twice as large niche at the downstream side in between.
These half-open spandrels were meant to further relieve the dead load on the bridge. The retaining walls, just as the breakwaters, were built with carefully hewn
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
blocks.
The outer
voussoir
A voussoir () is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault.
Although each unit in an arch or vault is a voussoir, two units are of distinct functional importance: the keystone and the springer. The ...
s of the arch rib are built of alternating bricks and
ashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
stones,
while the rest of the arch vaults consists entirely out of bricks.
Further materials mentioned by Wiegand include marble – probably for facing – and
mortar,
which could have been used as a binder, or may refer to
Roman concrete
Roman concrete, also called , is a material that was used in construction in ancient Rome. Roman concrete was based on a hydraulic-setting cement. It is durable due to its incorporation of pozzolanic ash, which prevents cracks from spreading. B ...
which often served to fill the interior of the spandrels and the piers. Ancient
Spolia
''Spolia'' (Latin: 'spoils') is repurposed building stone for new construction or decorative sculpture reused in new monuments. It is the result of an ancient and widespread practice whereby stone that has been quarried, cut and used in a built ...
were reportedly not used.
Date
The use of flattened arches composed of brick and stone indicates, according to Wiegand, a construction date in the
late Roman
Late may refer to:
* LATE, an acronym which could stand for:
** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia
** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law
** Local average treatment effect, ...
or
early Byzantine period.
Hasluck points out architectural parallels with the neighbouring
White Bridge
White Bridge ( ) or Bridge of love ( ), is a bridge in Vranje, over the Vranje river, in southeastern Serbia. It is in the old quarters of the city, in the Devet Jugovića Street.
It was constructed with white stone and dates from 1844, during ...
and
Aesepus Bridge
The Aesepus Bridge ( tr, Güvercin Köprüsü, "Dove Bridge") was a late antique Roman bridge over the Aesepus River (today ''Gönen Çayı'') in the ancient region of Mysia in modern-day Turkey. It is notable for its advanced hollow chamber syste ...
, and dates the Macestus Bridge on that basis to the reign of
Constantine the Great
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
(† 337 AD). The existence of a late Byzantine fortress, located on a hilltop some 300 m from the bridge, is taken as evidence for a continued use until at least the early 14th century.
The present state of the structure is unknown, it is not listed in O'Connor's recent compilation of Roman bridges.
See also
*
List of Roman bridges
This is a list of Roman bridges. The Romans were the world's first major bridge builders. The following list constitutes an attempt to list all known surviving remains of Roman bridges.
A Roman bridge in the sense of this article includes an ...
*
Roman architecture
Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical Greek architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans, but was different from Greek buildings, becoming a new architectural style. The two styles are often considered on ...
*
Roman engineering
The ancient Romans were famous for their advanced engineering accomplishments. Technology for bringing running water into cities was developed in the east, but transformed by the Romans into a technology inconceivable in Greece. The architecture ...
References
Sources
*
*
*
{{Roman bridges
Buildings and structures in Balıkesir Province
Deck arch bridges
Mysia
Roman bridges in Turkey
Roman segmental arch bridges
Stone bridges in Turkey
Arch bridges in Turkey