The Fleisch Bridge (german: Fleischbrücke or "Meat Bridge") or Pegnitz Bridge (''Pegnitzbrücke'') is a late

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

bridge in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. The bridge crosses the river Pegnitz in the center of the old town, linking the districts St. Sebald and St. Lorenz along the axis of the main market. The single-arch bridge was built between 1596 and 1598 and replaced an earlier mixed construction of stone and wood which had been repeatedly destroyed by flood. The Fleisch Bridge is notable for several technical features that were advanced for its time. These include an unusual large width of 15.3 m, and a clear span of 27 m which made it the largest masonry bridge arch in Germany at the time of its construction. With a rise of only 4.2 m, the arch features a span-to-rise ratio of 6.4 to 1, giving the bridge an almost unprecedented flat profile. This, however, came at the cost of high lateral thrusts even for a segmental arch bridge. This problem was solved by a particularly innovative construction of the

abutment An abutment is the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam supporting its superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end which provide vertical and lateral support for the span, as well as acting as retaining wal ...

s which were built onto 2000 wooden piles, 400 of which were rammed obliquely into the grounds. A very similar arrangement of the abutments had also been implemented slightly earlier at the

Rialto bridge The Rialto Bridge ( it, Ponte di Rialto; vec, Ponte de Rialto) is the oldest of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. Connecting the ' (districts) of San Marco and San Polo, it has been rebuilt several times since its fi ...

, leading to speculations about a technology transfer from

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, with which Nuremberg shared close trade links. A recent in-depth research, however, stresses the originality of the Fleisch Bridge on grounds of technical differences between the two bridges.Kaiser, Christiane: ''Die Fleischbrücke in Nürnberg (1596-1598)'', Cottbus, 2005, Dissertation, Vol. I, p. 245 The Fleisch Bridge has practically remained unchanged since the addition of a portal in 1599 and survived

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

almost unscathed. A

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

inscription at the portal reads: ''Omnia habent ortus suaque in crementa sed ecce quem cernis nunquam bos fuit hic Vitulus.'' ("All things have a beginning and grow, but the ox upon whom you now look was never a calf.")

References

Sources

*Kaiser, Christiane: ''Die Fleischbrücke in Nürnberg (1596-1598)'', Cottbus, 2005, Dissertation *Von Stromer, Wolfgang: "Pegnitzbrücke Nürnberg (Fleischbrücke)", in: ''Steinbrücken in Deutschland'', Beton-Verlag, 1988, pp. 162–167 *Pechstein, Klaus: "Allerlei Visierungen und Abriss wegen der Fleischbrücken", in: ''Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums'', 1978, 72-89.

External links

*
Pre-history and planning of the Fleisch Bridge
{{in lang, de Buildings and structures in Nuremberg Bridges in Germany Stone bridges in Germany Bridges completed in 1598 Stone arch bridges