Green's Bridge
Bridge in County Kilkenny, Ireland / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Green's Bridge, or Greensbridge, is an elegant, Palladian-style, limestone arch bridge that crosses the river Nore in Kilkenny, Ireland.[1] The bridge is a series of five elliptical arches of high-quality carved limestone masonry with a two-arch culvert to the east.[1][3] Its graceful profile, architectural design value, and civil engineering heritage endow it with national significance.[3] Historian Maurice Craig described it as one of the five-finest bridges in Ireland.[5] It was built by William Colles and designed by George Smith, and was completed in 1766.[1][3] The bridge was 250 years old in 2016.
Green's Bridge Green's Bridge[1] | |
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Coordinates | 52.6580457°N 7.2535254°W / 52.6580457; -7.2535254 |
Crosses | River Nore |
Locale | Kilkenny, County Kilkenny, Ireland |
Official name | Green's Bridge |
Maintained by | Kilkenny County Council |
Heritage status | Protected Structure[2] |
NIAH[3] | Reg. No.12004007[3] KN-130[1] |
Website | buildingsofireland |
Characteristics | |
Design | Arch bridge/palladian-style |
Material | Limestone |
Trough construction | limestone |
Pier construction | limestone |
History | |
Architect | George Smith |
Constructed by | William Colles (c. 1710–1770) |
Construction start | 1765[1] |
Construction cost | £2828[4] |
Opened | 1766[1] |
Replaces | Great Bridge of Kilkenny |
Location | |
The bridge's location on the north side of Kilkenny has been a ford since at least the middle of the 10th century.[6] The first bridge there was built in the 12th century by settlers from Flanders and has been rebuilt many times due to frequent floods.[6][7][8] The bridge itself is known from medieval times; it was described as "the Bridge of Kilkenny", "the big bridge of Kilkenny", and "Grines Bridge"; the origin of the name Green's Bridge, however, is uncertain.[9][10] The "Great Flood of 1763" destroyed the previous bridge.[3]
Green's Bridge was designed by George Smith and built by William Colles.[1] Colles was the owner of a marble works and an inventor of machinery for sawing, boring, and polishing limestone.[11] Smith designed an almost-true copy of the Bridge of Tiberius (Italian: Ponte di Augusto e Tiberio) in Rimini, Italy, as described by Andrea Palladio in I quattro libri dell'architettura (The Four Books of Architecture) (1570).[3][12] Parapets were added during a renovation in 1835.[1]
Temporary works to the bridge, which is currently used as a road bridge, carried out in 1969 have had a negative impact and the general appraisal is that it needs restoration.[3][13] The estimated the cost of the bridge was £2,828.[4]