Solkan Bridge is a 220-metre long stone bridge over the river Soča

Soca

The Soča or Isonzo is a 140 km long river that flows through western Slovenia and northeastern Italy. An Alpine river in character, its source lies in the Trenta Valley in the Julian Alps in Slovenia, at an elevation of around 1,100 metres...

 near Nova Gorica

Nova Gorica

Nova Gorica ; 21,082 ; 31,000 ) is a town and a municipality in western Slovenia, on the border with Italy...

 in western Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

. With an arch span of 85 metres it is the second longest stone arch in the world and the longest stone arch among train bridges. It was built in the time of the Secession

Vienna Secession

The Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects...

, between 1900 and 1906.

Description

The bridge was designed by R. Jaussner and L. Oerley, at first with 80-metre long stone arch. Between 1904 and 1905 the bridge was built by construction company Brueder Redlich und Berger from Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

. In the spring of 1904 builders had to change the project because of the lightweight soil and increase the arch to 85 meters. It is built of 4533 stone blocks.

On July 19, 1906, the railway from Jesenice to Gorizia

Gorizia

Gorizia is a town and comune in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, and it is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. Since 1947, a twin...

 was completed and the Austrian heir Franz Ferdinand

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

Franz Ferdinand was an Archduke of Austria-Este, Austro-Hungarian and Royal Prince of Hungary and of Bohemia, and from 1889 until his death, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia...

 travelled across the bridge. In 1916, during the first world war, the Austrians destroyed the bridge as they left Solkan

Solkan

Solkan is a suburb of the town of Nova Gorica in the Goriška region of western Slovenia, close to the border with Italy. Although it is nowadays completely integrated into Nova Gorica, with which it forms a single urban area, it has maintained the status of a separate urban settlement, due to its...

, so that the invading forces couldn't use it. After the war the Italians first built a steel construction where the bridge once stood and in April 1925 started to build a new bridge, which was finished in 1927. This bridge was very similar to the first one, with the exception of having only four sub-arches instead of the original five. During the second world war the bridge suffered only minimal damage from bomb attacks, which the Germans repaired in a few days.

Solkan bridge is the last stone bridge constructed in the world, because the first large concrete bridges were already on the horizon.