Roman Bridge over the Guadalquivir
— sixteen arches the river has known a long time.
Not only on a wall.
Roman Bridge over the Guadalquivir, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“The bridge has been here, in one form or another, since the 1st century BC, when Roman engineers first carried the Via Augusta across the Guadalquivir at Córdoba. Most of what stands now is medieval, rebuilt by the Moors and patched by the Christians and patched again. It runs about 247 metres on sixteen arches between the Puerta del Puente and the Calahorra Tower, with the Mezquita rising behind it on the north bank. At dusk the stone goes the colour of the river. — from the studio
The place, in three passes.
The Roman Bridge of Córdoba, the Puente Romano, crosses the Guadalquivir in the historic centre of Córdoba, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It runs about 247 metres long on sixteen arches and connects the Puerta del Puente, beside the Mezquita-Catedral, with the Calahorra Tower on the south bank. The original crossing dates from the early 1st century BC, built for the Roman Via Augusta. Most of the present fabric is the result of successive medieval reconstructions, particularly under the Caliphate of Córdoba and again in the 13th and 17th centuries. The bridge has been pedestrian-only since 2004.
The piers and arches are sandstone from local quarries, set into the riverbed in a sequence of dry seasons over two millennia. The Puerta del Puente at the north end was redesigned in 1572 by Hernán Ruiz III in the form of a Roman triumphal arch. Midway across stands a 16th-century column with a statue of San Rafael, the city's protector, where locals still leave candles. The Calahorra Tower at the south end is an Almohad gate-fortress from the late 12th century, now a small museum on the city's three-faith history. The whole crossing was inscribed by UNESCO in 1994 as part of the Historic Centre.
The bridge is pedestrian-only and open at all hours, with no admission fee. It sits roughly fifteen minutes' walk south of Córdoba's main railway station, which is served by AVE high-speed trains from Madrid in under two hours and from Seville in about forty-five minutes. The view back toward the Mezquita is best in the last hour of light. The bridge also stood in for the Long Bridge of Volantis in the fifth season of HBO's Game of Thrones in 2015, which has brought a steady increase in evening foot traffic. Cross to the south bank for the Calahorra Tower's small museum.
