2019Bridges and Viaducts - Miniature Sheet

The city of Sisak, known as Sisciain antiquity, was an important Roman municipium - a trade and crafts centre with a mint - and in the Middle Ages, it was the seat of the Croatian duke Ljudevit Posavski. In the 16thcentury, Sisak was a strategic stronghold in the resistance against Turkish conquest. During the 19thcentury, the city was slowly evolving into a trade and transportation centre, thanks to its location on the navigable rivers Sava and Kupa. The development of the city accelerated with the emergence of marine steam engines, and later also with the railway (the Zidani Most – Zagreb – Sisak railroad opened in 1862). Road transportation was less developed and, at that time, still depended on horse carts. All the while, the absence of a firm crossing that would connect the old part of the city on the left bank of the Kupa with the new part on the right bank, was causing considerable difficulties. Despite that, it was only in 1862 that a standard wooden bridge was constructed, its several smaller spans and one larger span, presenting a major obstacle to waterborne transport. However, it served its purpose for a full 72 years until the raising of the Old Bridge, which exists to this day.