Stone Bridge over the Bóbr in Brunów

Over the Bóbr river in Brunów, in Lwówek County, a stone bridge has carried the traffic of voivodeship road no. 297 for nearly a century and a half. It is one of those structures that drivers travelling from Lwówek Śląski to Brunów pass by, rarely realising they are crossing a 19th-century piece of engineering.

A bridge from around 1870

The current stone bridge was erected around 1870. Before that, a ford existed at the same spot, used from at least the 16th century, and the timber crossings that replaced it were repeatedly destroyed by floods. The stone structure was meant to be an answer to this instability.

Five spans of broken stone

The bridge has five spans with elliptical stone vaults, built of broken stone blocks faced with dressed sandstone. The whole structure is 52.1 metres long and 7.1 metres wide, and the individual spans measure 8.2 metres, three times 9.5 metres, and 8.2 metres again. It is an example of a uniform stone bridge structure with clear proportions, typical of 19th-century historicism.

On an old trade route

The bridge lies on an old trade route linking Kożuchów with Jelenia Góra and forms part of voivodeship road no. 297 connecting Lwówek Śląski with Brunów. The structure remains in active road use to this day.

Practical information

• The bridge is located in Brunów, over the Bóbr river, in Lwówek County.
• It lies by voivodeship road no. 297, about 1.5 kilometres from the market square in Lwówek Śląski.
• Nearby it is also worth seeing Szwajcaria Lwówecka and the town hall in Lwówek Śląski.
• The bridge is part of an active road, so viewing it up close requires caution around car traffic.