The Devil's Bridge — Schöllenen Gorge

OVERVIEW

The Schöllenen Gorge is cut by the upper Reuss in the canton of Uri between Andermatt and Göschenen, the way to the Gotthard Pass. Its sheer granite walls need several bridges and tunnels, the most famous a stone bridge known as the Teufelsbrücke, the Devil's Bridge.

HISTORY

The name 'Teiffels Brucken' is first recorded in 1587; in 1595 the wooden Stiebender Steg was replaced by a stone bridge that came to be called the Devil's Bridge. In 1608 Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, fleeing to Rome, lost a horse's load of gold here to the torrent. In September 1799 the bridge was one of the scenes of Suvorov's battles at the Saint-Gotthard and was heavily damaged by the retreating French; the Suvorov monument stands just south of it. The Devil's Stone, a granite block about 12 m high and 2,200 tons near Göschenen, was sold to a chocolate maker for 80 francs in 1887 and painted as an advertisement; saved from demolition in 1923, it was moved 127 m for the motorway in 1972 at a cost of CHF 335,000.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

The legend is related by Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1716): the people of Uri recruited the Devil to build the bridge, and he asked for the first thing to cross it. To trick him they threw a piece of bread across and sent a dog after it, which he tore to pieces. Enraged, he went to fetch a great rock to smash the bridge, but met a holy man who scolded him and forced him to drop it below Göschenen. In Meinrad Lienert's retelling (1915) a goat crosses, and an old woman marks the rock with a cross. The legend does not seem to have existed before the 16th century; Lauf-Belart (1924) suggested the name came first, from learned travellers, and the local legend only in the 17th century.

VISITING

The Devil's Bridge is on the road through the Schöllenen Gorge near Andermatt; the Devil's Stone stands at exit 40 (Göschenen) of the motorway, at the entrance of the Gotthard Road Tunnel, visible from the railway and the motorway.