FROM THE DISAPPEARED CARBON BRIDGE (OR NEW BRIDGE)

The Puente del Carbón apartments are located in one of the most emblematic areas of Granada. Formerly there was one of the most important bridges in the area of the Darro River, both for its location and for the urban areas it connected.

The Puente del Carbón is the name of our apartments, a reminder of that mercantile Granada that lived on the banks of the Darro river.

It was located at the height of today known as Corral del Carbón. It would take place in the 14th century. This merchandise warehouse was located strategically in an area in which it was located near Zacatín and the Alcaicería.

Precisely to communicate the most important accesses of this commercial area of the city, the Coal Bridge is built. In this area there were a lot of workshops, tanneries and looms in the area near the river, and a large number of potters in the area closest to the Realejo. Therefore, the bridge was conceived as fundamental for the life of a part of the medina that increased its population in a remarkable way.

Some illustration of the bridge is conserved, that had a semicircular arch, with voussoirs and ashlar parapet, and the rest of sillarejo. It would also be reinforced on the north side, by which the river caused greater erosion due to the curve of the same in this area.

Like the rest of the bridges, it had many reconstructions and reinforcements, but it remained in use until well into the 19th century, at the time of making the embovedado of this area of the river. Another attack against the heritage of this city, fruit of the influence of a supposed “intellectuality” that advised a cleaning of the center. It will now be a matter of the observer’s imagination, when you walk down this central street to build the virtual image of what this environment could be with this bridge over the river Darro.