Etruscan Bridge

This bridge with its characteristic arched profile, known as a "donkey-back bridge," evokes in colors and atmospheres the Ponte della Badia and the Cascata del Pellicone in the ancient Etruscan territory of Vulci, in the province of Viterbo.

Donkey-back bridges actually date back to the medieval period and are nearly all linked by the same legend attributing their construction in ancient times to the intervention of the devil himself! Majestic and spectacular, these "devil's bridges" owe their singular fame to their particularly daring structure, which distinguished them as feats of great constructional effort, something that in popular imagination was only possible with supernatural aid.

The Ponte della Badia in Vulci, which has Etruscan origins but its current structure is the result of subsequent construction phases, has a distinctive and unique feature: it has a bizarre limestone formation resembling a hanging rag (known as "coroja" in the local dialect) at the location of its main arch.

According to legend, this "rag" was left behind by the devil who, after completing the bridge in a single night, abandoned it there in haste to vanish at dawn. Beyond this intriguing explanation, the "Devil's Rag" formed over centuries due to a leak in the adjacent aqueduct channel, which even during Roman times followed the path of the bridge.