Seven Places in Europe That Legends Say Were Built by Giants, Devils or Dragons

Not a real one, but one in a Nordic-style crime series that opened with a body found on a lonely stone bridge called Devil’s Bridge. My curiosity eventually took me to that very bridge, near Aberystwyth in Wales, and to a question: Why are there so many bridges named Devil’s Bridge across Europe? Numerous bridges in European folklore are associated with the devil.

The story usually goes something like this: When a bridge seems impossible to build, the devil offers to finish it in exchange for the first soul to cross, but he ultimately ends up outwitted. Across Europe, dramatic landscapes and ambitious structures that seemed impossible for humans to create have often been attributed to devils, giants, dragons, saints and other supernatural beings. The stories have survived despite geology and engineering that offer evidence-backed answers.

The Devil’s Bridge in Wales comprises three bridges, one above another, spanning the Mynach Gorge. The lowest is thought to date to the medieval period, possibly built by monks from nearby Strata Florida Abbey. A second was added in 1753, and the third, an iron bridge, was constructed in 1901.

The Mynach Falls drop nearly 300 feet through a narrow ravine before the river Mynach joins the Rheidol. According to legend, the devil offered to build the bridge in return for the soul of the first living creature to cross it. An old woman fooled him by throwing bread across the bridge and sending her sacrificial dog after it.

The history is less tidy. Michael Freeman, vice president of the Ceredigion Historical Society, says the bridge was known as Pontarfynach, or the Monk’s Bridge, in Welsh. Its association with the devil doesn’t seem to date beyond the early 18th century.

The story was not mentioned in print until the early 19th century when English tourists helped publicize it, he says. Juliette Wood, a folklorist at Cardiff University, says the Devil’s Bridge story is “one of many common legends usually called ‘migratory,’ as it appears in so many places.” The devil isn’t always as formidable as he sounds. As many as 40,000 interlocking dark basalt columns form a natural pavement along Northern Ireland’s Antrim Coast.