Dúrcal
Puente Antiguo
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Granada was experiencing growth, making it necessary to establish new communication routes. Bridle paths had to be replaced with roads that could accommodate carriages. It was decided that the section of the royal road through the Alpujarra, passing through Dúrcal, Talará, Béznar and Izbor, should be used to reach Motril. However, the royal road to Motril passed through Restábal and Pinos del Rey.
Archbishop Don Juan José Orbe, one of the most influential men in the entire Crown and confessor to Queen Isabel II, decided that the road should not pass through his town, believing that progress would corrupt it. Work on this enormous engineering project began on 5 April 1839, with several sections being worked on simultaneously, particularly the most complex ones. Thousands of prisoners were brought from different parts of Spain, including Málaga, Madrid, Cartagena, Toledo and Zamora, and housed in various prisons. Hundreds of soldiers were stationed there to guard them. Brick factories and first-aid hospitals were built in Padul, and tool factories in Alhendín.
In the 1850s, a new design for the bridge was presented. A lack of funding caused delays to the work, and ownership of the project changed from provincial to state. It was not until 1950 that the state began to assume the costs and give the project new impetus. It was then that Don Juan Tuset, a civil engineer from Tarragona, was brought in to design the construction of the bridges and tunnels. To overcome the river depression, the road was adapted and the bridge was built at the narrowest and lowest point, with slopes established for this purpose. It was laid out in a straight line, as was later done with the tram bridge. The 104-metre-long bridge comprises seven semicircular arches with a span of 8.4 metres, six piers or pillars with a width of 2.5 metres, and the arches are 19.5 metres high. The foundations are 2.40 metres deep. The angles and the points where the arches start are made of cut stone ashlar; the rest is brickwork filled with quarry stone and mortar. The famous earthquake of 1884 also affected the structure of this bridge that had been built for about 25 years, specifically in the pillars closest to Dúrcal, so a budget had to be released for its repair.
The famous earthquake of 1884 also affected this bridge, which had been under construction for around 25 years. Specifically, the pillars closest to Dúrcal were damaged, so a budget had to be released for repairs.