Devil's Bridge. Swiss

The Schöllenen Gorge (Schöllenenschlucht) is an important access route to the St. Gotthard Pass. However, the valley is very narrow, featuring the dangerous river Reuss. The first bridge across the river was built in 1230. This was a wooden bridge and had to be replaced often owing to weather damage.

In the 16th century, the bridge was rebuilt in stone. In 1799 this bridge witnessed one of the most dramatic battles of Suvorov's Italian and Swiss expedition which took place during the Napoleonic Wars.

According to a local myth, building the first bridge was very hard and so the Devil himself agreed to build it. The condition attached to the construction was that the Devil would get the soul of the first to pass over the bridge. So, when the bridge was finished, people chased a goat over the bridge. Angered by the trick, the Devil went to pick up a large stone (called Teufelsstein, the Devil's Stone) in order to smash the bridge to pieces. On his way to the bridge however, he encountered an old believing woman with a cross. Scared of the cross, he left the stone and fled.