Nova Gorica Solkan Eisenbahnbruecke ueber die Soca 120720069 1600x1062 88

The Solkan Bridge (, ) is a

arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its structural load, loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either si ...

over the Soča River near

Nova Gorica Nova Gorica () is a town in western Slovenia, on the border with Italy. It is the seat of the Municipality of Nova Gorica. Nova Gorica is a planned town, built according to the principles of modernist architecture after 1947, when the Treaty of pe ...

in western

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

(by railway terminology it is a

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide ...

). With an arch span of , it is the world's longest stone arch railroad bridge (and second-longest stone arch bridge, after Germany's , a road bridge). It holds this record because later construction technology used

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

to build bridges. It was originally built to carry the

Bohinj Railway The Bohinj Railway (, , ) is a railway in Slovenia and Italy. It connects Jesenice in Slovenia with Trieste in Italy. It was built by Austria-Hungary from 1900 to 1906 as a part of a new strategic railway, the Neue Alpenbahnen, that would conn ...

in the time of the

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (; also known as the Union of Austrian Artists or ) is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects, including Josef Ho ...

, between 1900 and 1905, and officially opened in 1906.

Description

The bridge was designed by the architect Rudolf Jaussner and engineer Leopold Oerley, initially with an stone arch, and built between 1904 and 1905. Its central span was built by the

Viennese Viennese may refer to: * Vienna, the capital of Austria * Viennese people, List of people from Vienna * Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna * Viennese classicism * Viennese coffee house, an eating establishment and part of Viennese ...

construction company Brüder Redlich und Berger and the end viaducts were built by the Italian construction company Sard, Lenassi & Co, incorporated in

Gorizia Gorizia (; ; , ; ; ) is a town and (municipality) in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, Region ...

for this project by the Italian engineer Giovanni Battista Sard of

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. Initially a steel arched bridge was planned at this location, but later they decided to build a stone bridge instead. In the spring of 1904 the builders had to change the project because of the light soil and increased the arch to . It is built of 4,533 stone blocks. On July 19, 1906, the

(, , ) from

Jesenice Jesenice (, ''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru'', vol. 6: Kranjsko. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 144.) is the tenth-largest town in Slovenia, located in the traditional province of Upper C ...

was inaugurated (the Austrian heir Franz Ferdinand travelled across the bridge). In August 1916, during the First World War, Austrian soldiers destroyed the bridge (using of Ecrasite) as they left

Solkan Solkan ( or ; , or ''Salcano'') is a settlement in the Municipality of Nova Gorica in the Gorizia region of western Slovenia, at the border with Italy. Although it forms a single urban area with the city of Nova Gorica today, it has maintained th ...

to prevent the invading forces from using it. After the 12th Isonzo battle the Austrian army built a steel construction where the bridge once stood.Bildarchiv Austria https://onb.wg.picturemaxx.com/?16756386081222671803 After the war in April 1925 the Italians started to build a new bridge, which was finished in 1927. This bridge was very similar to the first one, with the exception of having only four sub-arches instead of the original five. During the Second World War, the bridge suffered only minimal damage in aerial bombing. On August 10, 1944, bombs missed the bridge; on March 15, 1945, a bomb that hit the bridge did not explode.

Literature

* Gorazd Humar: ''Kamniti velikan na Soči.'' Nova Gorica: Branko, 1996, . * Gorazd Humar, Bogdan Kladnik: ''Slovenski Mostovi: Bridges of Slovenia.'' Part 2: ''Štajerska, Dolenjska, Gorenjska, Prekmurje.'' Ljubljana: Zaklad, 2002, . * Eduard Jordan (2013)
Der Eisbahnviadukt von Solkan/Salcano
* Walther Schaumann: ''Die Bahnen zwischen Ortler und Isonzo 1914 - 1918. Vom Friedensfahrplan zur Kriegsfahrordnung''. Vienna: Bohmann Verlag, 1991.

References

External links

* Railway bridges in Slovenia Viaducts in Slovenia Arch bridges in Slovenia Bridges completed in 1905 Urban Municipality of Nova Gorica Bridges over the Soča Buildings and structures in the Slovenian Littoral Soča Valley Stone arch bridges 1905 establishments in Austria-Hungary 20th-century architecture in Slovenia {{Slovenia-bridge-struct-stub