Covered Bridges

Strasbourg’s Covered Bridges date to the 13th c., when these crossings over the River Ill and their four squat towers formed a hard edge to the city’s riverside defenses. The timber roofs that gave them their name vanished in the 18th c., but the nickname endures, as does the sense of a guarded threshold between the old town and Petite France. Seen with the cathedral spire beyond, the bridges read as Strasbourg in miniature: water, fortification, and civic pride.