Broken Old Bridge

A bridge over the Mat river, named after King Zog, built in 1927. The design and materials were Italian; the engineers were Albanian. The arches are concrete, and the metal elements were fashioned from narrow-gauge railway rails.

In its time the bridge was of great importance to the country, quite literally connecting northern Albania with central Albania. It was recognised as a cultural heritage monument in 1999 and closed following an accident in 2021: after exceptionally heavy rainfall, one of the piers sank two metres into the ground. The accident had been long in the making — for several years prior, stone had been extracted from the riverbanks, altering the riverbed’s profile. Since the bridge was closed to traffic, the approach from both sides has been blocked with concrete blocks.