Kładka Ojca Bernatka, Kraków

Kładka Ojca Bernatka is a pedestrian-and-cycle bridge over the Vistula, connecting Kazimierz with Podgórze on the site of the former Podgórski Bridge. Its steel arch supports separate walking and cycling decks, while Jerzy Kędziora’s balancing sculptures and hundreds of love locks give the crossing its distinctive character.

Kładka Ojca Bernatka is the pedestrian-and-cycle bridge across the Vistula that links Kazimierz and Podgórze. It stands where the former Podgórski Bridge once crossed the river. Its name commemorates Father Laetus Bernatek, the religious brother who secured the construction of Kraków’s Brothers Hospitallers hospital buildings around the turn of the twentieth century.

The bridge’s unmistakable centrepiece is a steel arch, one hundred and forty-five metres long, spanning between the old bridge abutments. From that arch hang two decks: one for people on foot and another for bicycles. The entire structure weighs more than seven hundred tonnes.

Its arrival was an engineering spectacle. Builders first assembled the whole bridge alongside the river on Kurlandzki Boulevard, then on the nineteenth of June, twenty ten, barges and cranes moved it into place across the water. It opened on the thirtieth of September that year.

Along the bridge, Jerzy Kędziora’s balancing sculptures belong to his Between Heaven and Earth series. The railings also carry hundreds of love locks, left as declarations intended to last. This crossing revived an old route between Wolnica Square and Podgórze Market Square.