Old Bridge over the Tarn River in Albi, Tarn (France)

On the banks of the Tarn river in south-west France, the old city of Albi reflects the culmination of a medieval architectural and urban ensemble. Today the Old Bridge (Pont-Vieux), the Saint-Salvi quarter and its church are testimony to its initial development (10th -11th centuries).

Episcopal City of Albi

as UNESCO World Heritage Site

Friedrichsbrucke over the Spree River in Berlin (Germany)

“Berlin combines the culture of New York, the traffic system of Tokyo, the nature of Seattle, and the historical treasures of, well, Berlin.”

Hiroshi Motomura

Edward Rydz-Śmigły Marshall Bridge over the Vistula River in Wloclawek, Kuyavia (Poland)

One doesn't leave a soldier's grave with a broken soul. One doesn't leave with a sense of defeat and hopelessness, but with the unshakable conviction that a new spiritual value has emerged, a value not mine, not yours, but of us all—a value belonging to the entire nation. Their memory must endure and live on forever. In our schools, children should learn the names of those who died in their own community or town. This should be included in the curriculum and be the first lesson they learn about Poland...

Edward Rydz-Śmigły

Pont Saint Michel over the Gave de Pau River in Lourdes, Hautes Pyrénées (France)

"We are inspired by the Commission comprising wise, holy, learned and experienced priests who questioned the child, studied the facts, examined everything and weighed all the evidence. We have also called on science, and we remain convinced that the Apparitions are supernatural and divine, and that by consequence, what Soubirous saw was the Most Blessed Virgin. Our convictions are based on the testimony of Soubirous, but above all on the things that have happened, things which can be nothing other than divine intervention."

On 18 January 1862, 

the Bishop of Tarbes Betrand Severt Laurence

Zamkowy Most (Castle Bridge) over the Mlynowka canal in Opole (Poland)

Hello? If you can hear me, give a sign, a call,
enclose a tone. I want to know if there’s a meaning.
Bark during sleep, wake up the neighbors, swing a bell,
let glass fly from the windows, let the singing

of mermaids prompt an erection. Let the host go hoarse
and let the radio shut up, let silence rise
above the street like a mountain peak, like forty floors
of editors accepting slender volumes of complaints and gripes.

I’m waiting for a sign. There’s time. By now, I’m well
regarded here as a nutcase who blabbers on,
who sends letters to his own address. I myself
created you, it’s clear, but what about the future tense

Poem by Opole poet Tomasz Rozycki,

translated by Mira Rosenthal

Altstadtbrücke (Old Town Bridge) over the Elbe River in Meissen, Saxony (Germany)

Leise ebbt der Strom. Im Schlick

Ragen plumpe Fischerkähne

Draußen gleiten, stille Schwäne,

Mit den weißen Segeln andre.

Und die Strecke überwandre

Breiter Bahn ich mit dem Blick

Bis ans niedere Gelände

Drüben, wo sich Wiesen breiten,

Wo die bunten Kühe schreiten

Zwischen üppigem Krautgestände,

Und die groben Weidenköpfe,

Knorrig, bissig, Sauertöpfe,

...

Beginning of poem Abend an der Elbe

by Gustav Falke

Maria Theresa Bridge (or Stone Bridge) across the Meuse River in Roermond (Netherlands)

 

"If I could wish for immortality on earth, it would only be for the power of relieving the distressed."

Maria Theresa of Austria

Pont Saint-Benezet over the Rhone River in Avignon, Vaucluse (France)

Vignes du Languedoc, oliviers des Alpines,
Toi qui dresses si haut ton front neigeux, Ventoux,
Alpes du Dauphiné, forêts, monts et collines,
Dans la plaine à vos pieds que regardez-vous tous ?

Les pics et les coteaux, les vignes et les chênes,
Étageant leurs gradins en cercle à l'horizon,
Regardent au milieu des mûriers, dans les plaines,
Près du Rhône qui luit, la hautaine Avignon.

Avignon, by Jean Aicard 

Pont Bessieres over the Flon Valley in Lausanne, Vaud (Switzerland)

 “I love Switzerland. It's so clean and cool. We don't get much snow where I live so I get real excited in Lausanne and Geneva. I'd like to buy a house there when I'm older and settle down. It's all so cute that it looks like a movie set.”

Michael Jackson

Archbishop Bridge over the Seine River in Paris (France)

J'adore les quais de la Seine
La mine sereine
Des petites marchands
Le calme du vieux bouquiniste
Dressant une liste
D'invendus charmants

From the song Le quais de la Seina

Lucienne Delyle

Praterwehrbrucke crossing the Isar River in Munich, Bavaria (Germany)

"Though German art can never be Bavarian, but simply German, yet Munich is the capital of this German Art; here, under shelter of a Prince who kindles my enthusiasm, to feel myself a native and member of the people was, to me, the homeless wanderer, a deep, a genuine need. "

Richard Wagner

Bridge across the Selige Lake towards the Nilov Monastery (Russia)

 Behind the lake the moon’s not stirred
And seems to be a window through
Into a silent, well-lit house,
Where something unpleasant has occurred.

Has the master been brought home dead,
The mistress run off with a lover,
Or has a little girl gone missing,
And her shoes found by the creek-bed…

Poem by Anna Akhmatova

Pont Saint Michel over the Gave de Pau River in Lourdes, Haute Pyrenées (France)

I do not think our successes can compete with those of Lourdes. There are so many more people who believe in the miracles of the Blessed Virgin than in the existence of the unconscious.

Sigmund Freud

Painting of the Patriarchal Bridge over the Moskva River in Moscow (Russia)

“The officials wanted the cathedral to look modern. The main mistake was bronze and plastic bas-relieves of saints on the cathedral façade. But achange of material was only half the trouble. Sculptors who created these bas-relives for some reason made them look like a caricature. All saints looked like dolls… It can be easily proved if you look at the original bas-relief stored in Donskoy Monastery.”

Aleksey Denisov,

architect of Moscow Cahedral

Old Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge over the Moskva River in Moscow (Russia)

Moscow, who are you?
Echantress or enchanted?Forger of freedom
or fettered lady?
What thought furrows your brow
as you plot your worldwide plot?
Are you a shining window
into another age?
O Moscow, are you femme fatale
...

Poem by Velimir Khlebnikov

Hohenzollern Bridge over the Rhine River in Cologne (Germany)

Rheinkohle statt Gold 
Die Fische und die nackten Nymphen 
Sterben im romantischen Wasser aus 
Über die Brücke fahren nur Trauerzüge 
In Särgen wird das letzte Gold geschmuggelt 
Der Osten exportiert seine Frühsonne 
Aurora ist kein Frauenname mehr 
Doch paßt er gut für eine Aktiengesellschaft 
...

In a poem by Yvan Goll

Tournelle Bridge across the Seine River in Paris (France)

En passant sur le pont de la Tournelle, un soir,
Je me suis arrêté quelques instants pour voir
Le soleil se coucher derrière Notre-Dame.
Un nuage splendide à l'horizon de flamme,
Tel qu'un oiseau géant qui va prendre l'essor,
D'un bout du ciel à l'autre ouvrait ses ailes d'or,
- Et c'était des clartés à baisser la paupière.
Les tours au front orné de dentelles de pierre,
...

Poem by Teóphile Gautier

Patriarshy Bridge over the Moskva River in Moscow (Russia)

Here in my Moscow – cupolas gleaming!

Here, in my Moscow – great bells ringing!

And the tombs here, facing,

Of Tsarinas, and the Tsars.

You’ll not know, at dawn in the Kremlin,

It’s easiest to breathe – in this world, I mean!

You’ll not know, at dawn in the Kremlin

I pray for you – till it’s dark!

And you stroll beside your Neva;

At that time, beside the Moskva,

Here I stand, with head bowed lower,

In the bright streetlight’s arc.

With my weight of insomnia, I love you,

With my weight of insomnia, I hear you,

At that time, in the Kremlin, too,

...

Marina Tsvetaieva

Old Empress Elizabeth Bridge over the Danube Canal in Vienna (Austria) painted by Erwin Pendl

"Farewell, farewell, bare trees

evoi, large and small bushes.

When there rivestirete of sprouts

I am far from this castle"

Empress Elizabeth (Sissi)

when leaving Vienna 

Ponte Sant'Angello over the Tiber River in Rome (Italy)

Buscas en Roma a Roma ¡oh peregrino!

y en Roma misma a Roma no la hallas:
cadáver son las que ostentó murallas
y tumba de sí proprio el Aventino.
Yace donde reinaba el Palatino

y limadas del tiempo, las medallas
más se muestran destrozo a las batallas
de las edades que Blasón Latino.
Sólo el Tibre quedó, cuya corriente,

si ciudad la regó, ya sepultura
la llora con funesto son doliente.
¡Oh Roma en tu grandeza, en tu hermosura,

huyó lo que era firme y solamente
lo fugitivo permanece y dura

Francisco de Quevedo