Ponts Couverts de Strasbourg

Three stone towers rise from the River Ill, connected by bridges that once held wooden roofs. Built in the thirteen hundreds, these structures defended the southern approach to Strasbourg. They took their name from the heavy timber covers that shielded soldiers from enemy arrows and stones. The roofs disappeared in the nineteenth century when the bridges became open walkways, yet the stout masonry remains. A cannonball from the eighteen seventy siege of Strasbourg still lodges in the masonry of one tower today.