Alte Mainbrücke, Stone arch bridge in Würzburg, Germany

Alte Mainbrücke is a stone arch bridge in Würzburg with eight semicircular arches and pointed cutwaters, built of light reddish-brown Muschelkalk limestone from a quarry near Eibelstadt. It is 185 metres long and 7.45 metres wide, with a flat walkway and a low parapet lined with twelve sandstone saint statues facing the roadway.

A first Romanesque stone bridge was built here around 1120 under the cathedral and city builder Enzelin, replacing a ferry. After flood damage in 1342 and 1442, construction of the present bridge began in 1476; the limestone piers were finished in 1488. Stone vaults replaced the wooden spans from 1512, completed only in 1703 for lack of funds.

The twelve sandstone saints on the parapet were set up from 1728/29, six on the south side after designs commissioned by Prince-Bishop Christoph Franz von Hutten, six more around 1730 on the north side under Friedrich Carl von Schönborn. Carved by Johann Sebastian and Volkmar Becker and the Paris-born court sculptor Claude Curé, they stand about 4.5 metres tall in pillar niches, facing the roadway. Weathering destroyed the originals, which have been replaced by copies.

The bridge is easy to walk or cycle across without steep inclines or major obstacles. Cafes and resting spots at both ends offer views of the old town and fortress.

The bridge has eight arches with spans from 17.53 m at the right bank to 12.2 m at the far end, and the arch over the lock shaft is 16.56 m wide with 5.3 m clearance at the highest navigable water. The limestone came from a quarry at the Bromberg near Eibelstadt, about 8.5 km upstream.