El CONGOST DELS TRES PONTS

The mythical place of the Segre River at the gates of the Pyrenees

If there is a mythical place on the Segre River in the region of l’Alt Urgell, it is the gorge or ravine of the Tres Ponts. The name is due to the construction and reconstruction of several bridges to cross the Segre River three times, on a journey along a dizzying horseshoe path that since the beginning of time has been crossed by the Carthaginian armies of Hannibal, the Roman legions of Caesar and the troops of Napoleon.

The journey along such a steep and dangerous path dates back to two thousand years before Christ, when travellers suffered real hardships and hardships to get from the plains of Lleida to this inhospitable and steep limestone territory, which the Segre River excavated in the Tertiary period with the formation of the Pyrenees.
Travellers on foot or with animals, walked along a dangerous horseshoe path that connected the plains of Lleida with the first foothills of the Pyrenees, crossing the Segre River to reach the Andorran mountains and the glacial basin of Cerdanya where the Segre flows to reach the Pic du Segre, in the Puigmal massif where the river is born in neighbouring France.

The current name of Segre comes from the pre-Roman Sicoris which means to flow or noble flowing stream (memories of Julius Caesar 49 BC, in the war that ends with the capitulation of the generals Pompey, Afranius and Petreius. Caesar’s troops are blocked in the Segre by the enormous flood of May due to the snow melting in the Pyrenees, “Memories of Julius Caesar”) to finally pass to the Latin Sequere. The previous pre-Roman names to Sicoris were the Iberian names Seikw and Síkor. The Latin Sequere was derived in the 10th century to the name Segure.

Likewise, centuries later, Napoleon’s troops and surveyors analysed the narrow and dangerous passages of the river, mapping and drawing them, as well as its three bridges (although surely at one time there were up to four) vital to cross its waters and reach La Seu and the Andorran valleys entering through Sant Julià, where suspension bridges were built to cross the Valira river. At that time Andorra and the territory of l’Urgellet were one and the same. The territory began downstream from Coll de Nargó, in the Espluvins gorge and ended in the Andorran valleys, being all one region.

The three bridges or Tres Ponts were built by the Benedictine bishop Ermengol and received three names. The first was the Tower Bridge, the second, always controversial due to its continuous accidents and collapses, was the Devil’s Bridge. The third bridge, first made of stone and then of wood as a hanging walkway, was the La Escala bridge.

To build the three bridges and link the bridleway, it was necessary to build a road on both sides of the gorge, which was probably started by Caesar’s legions on both sides of the river, and then in the Middle Ages the bridleways were remodelled with an improved road, building small bridges or footbridges that allowed people and animals to pass between the untamed rocks. This is the Sant Ermengol path or pass built by Bishop Ermengol. Today these passes can be seen, most of them in very poor condition and the bridges almost all collapsed. These bridges later received the colloquial name of Pontarrons del Congost dels Tres Ponts.

Indeed, it was Bishop Ermengol (950 – 1035) who carried out the great work of building the three bridges and the winding path on both sides of the Segre, equipped with small bridges to overcome the large rocks, known as the path of Sant Ermengol. The bishop came from the Benedictine Monastery of San Andrés or Sant Iscle de Centelles, located at the confluence of the Segre and the river La Vansa. The monastery was built around the year 785 in the time of Charlemagne.

The bishop died on 3 November 1035 while supervising the work on the Pont de Bar bridge, falling into the river from one of its spurs and his body disappearing in the tumultuous waters of the river Segre swollen by the autumn rains. Some residents of Organyà tried to rescue his body using the hooks of rafters, which has earned the name “ganxos” (hooks) to the inhabitants of this town, even today.

~ Carles V.