Rakotzbrücke

About

The Rakotz Bridge (German: Rakotzbrücke ; Upper Sorbian: Rakocec Móst ), also known as Devil's Bridge (German: Teufelsbrücke ; Upper Sorbian: Djabołski Móst ), spanning Rakotz Lake, is 7.8 metres (26 ft) long and 6.5 metres (21 ft) wide. The name of both the bridge and the lake derive from the Upper Sorbian expression for crab ( rak ). The radius of the inner arch is 2.2 metres, and the outer radius is 3.4 metres long. The abutments measure 3.6 metres (12 ft), and the side weights measure 2.0 metres (6 ft 7 in).

The bridge features artificially-formed basalt columns selected and shipped from distant quarries. It was commissioned in 1860 "by the knight of the local town", Friedrich Herrmann Rötschke (1805–1893).

Although the bridge was renovated in 2018 and 2019, it has remained forbidden to cross the bridge, for the safety of both the public and the bridge itself.