I’m currently on a small one-week trip to Spain, and it’s our plan to visit some of Spain’s most recognizable locations. First stop was in Córdoba, a city in the southern part of the country, made famous, most recently, by the use of its Roman bridge in the HBO hit Game of Thrones, where the Long Bridge of Volantis was filmed. Let me tell you, the bridge isn’t really all that large, and certainly not wide enough to fit housing. The bridge is 331 meters long and 9 meters wide, and dates back to Roman times, when it was built around the first century BC. No exact date is known, but it’s clear that until the first century BC, there weren’t any bridges in the region, because some sources mention Julius Caesar having to create a temporary bridge when he arrived here.
One thing is certain: the existing bridge might date back to Roman times, but it’s far from the original version. In fact, it’s hard to know how it originally looked, as historical sources mention that it has been worked on and improved over time, with some theories even suggesting that the original bridge was destroyed by the river Guadalquivir with its mighty strength, and the current one is an 8th-century replacement after the Islamic forces conquered the city, which has been reworked too multiple times ever since.
Here is the bridge today:
Here is the bridge in Game of Thrones:
On the southern end of the bridge, there’s the Torre de la Calahorra, a defensive structure of Islamic origin too.
Tomorrow I hope to bring you a new entry about the Córdoba Mosque and its Roman walls.
Leave a Reply