Justinianus Köprüsü

The Justinianus Bridge, known locally as Beşköprü and in ancient sources as the Sangarius Bridge, is an East Roman stone bridge on the southwestern edge of Adapazarı, within the boundaries of today's Serdivan district. The Sakarya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism describes it as one of the most magnificent monumental structures of the Early Byzantine period in Anatolia. The bridge was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 2018. Seeing a fifteen century old work of engineering right beside the city is one of the most striking moments of a trip to Sakarya. The bridge was commissioned by the East Roman Emperor Justinian I. Its purpose was to let the military road between the capital Constantinople and the eastern provinces of the empire cross the Sakarya River safely. According to the historian Procopius, a bridge of boats tied together had stood here before, and it was often swept away when the river flooded. Sources give different dates for its construction. The Culture Portal and the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism write that it was built between 558 and 560. Wikipedia, drawing on contemporary sources, states that work began in 559 or 560 and that the poems celebrating its completion date from 562. The dimensions also vary by source. The official pages describe the bridge as 365 metres long, 9.85 metres wide and with 12 arches in total. Seven of these are the large circular main arches in the middle, completed by two small secondary arches at the western end and three at the eastern end. Wikipedia, however, gives a total length of 429 metres including the abutments at both ends, and a height of about 10 metres. The difference most likely comes from whether the abutments are included in the measurement. The bridge is built entirely of limestone. The spans of the large central arches range from 23 to 24.5 metres, and the piers between them are about 6 metres thick. The piers are shaped as cutwaters, rounded on the upstream side and pointed on the downstream side. Wikipedia notes that this arrangement differs from most known Roman bridges. The small arches on the banks are flood openings that let water through when the river overflowed. The most curious thing about the bridge is that almost no water flows beneath it today. Over the centuries the Sakarya River changed its bed and shifted about three kilometres to the east. The bridge therefore now stands over the small Çark stream, called Melas in antiquity, which carries the waters of Lake Sapanca to the river. The stream passes under one of the western arches. The story of the name is curious too. According to the Culture Portal, the bridge was at first simply called pons, the Latin word for bridge, and had no name of its own. People who did not know the meaning of the word took it for a proper name and began to call the bridge Pontogephyra. Over time that name turned into Pentegephyra, meaning Five Bridges, even though the bridge has neither five parts nor five arches. When you arrive, look first at the two ends. At the eastern end an apsidal structure 11 metres high and 9 metres wide still stands; its function is not known for certain. At the western end there was once a triumphal arch of the kind seen on Roman bridges, but only its trace remains today. The traveller Léon de Laborde recorded this arch in his drawings in 1838. Looking from above is not enough to see the arches; viewing them from the side, from the bank that runs down to the stream bed, shows the stonework and the rhythm of the arches far better. In the afternoon, the low light from the west gives the limestone blocks a warm colour. The bridge was repaired by the General Directorate of Highways in 1995, closed to vehicle traffic, and given three steps at each end. According to the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism page, the bridge is currently closed and a restoration project is under way. So check with current official sources before you go whether you can walk on the bridge; even if it is closed, the structure can be seen from its surroundings. The bridge lies southwest of central Adapazarı, about five kilometres away according to Wikipedia and eight kilometres according to the Culture Portal, and it can be reached by city transport. Coming here after seeing the Roman and Byzantine stones in the garden of Sakarya Museum in the city centre completes, on the spot, the world those fragments once belonged to.