Pope John Paul II bridge, Border road bridge between Görlitz, Germany and Zgorzelec, Poland.
Pope John Paul II bridge, also called Stadtbrücke, is the only inner-city bridge for cars and buses over the Lusatian Neisse between Görlitz and Zgorzelec. It links Görlitz's Stadtpark area with Zgorzelec's Gründerzeitviertel, and the road crosses the river near the 15th meridian east.
The bridge opened in 1875 as the Reichenberger Brücke, a stone arch bridge at a former ford of the Neiße, built to relieve the Altstadtbrücke. On 7 May 1945 the Wehrmacht blew up all Neiße bridges in Görlitz; only the piers of the stone arches survived. The Red Army built a temporary wooden bridge in its place, and the crossing was renamed Brücke der Freundschaft after the Görlitz Agreement of 6 July 1950. It became an official border crossing on 1 October 1958 and was renovated in 2006.
The bridge was renamed Papst-Johannes-Paul-II.-Brücke on 18 May 2006, with memorial plaques to the pope set into the pavement at both bridgeheads. During the DDR era it was called Brücke der Freundschaft, and on 6 July 1950 an East German delegation led by Minister-President Otto Grotewohl crossed it to sign the Görlitz Agreement in the former Oberlausitzer Ruhmeshalle.
Since Poland joined the Schengen Agreement, stationary border checks have been gone from this crossing since 21 December 2007, and customs controls ended with EU accession three years earlier. The bridge is the only inner-city crossing for cars and buses over the Lusatian Neisse, so traffic bound for Zgorzelec's Gründerzeitviertel funnels through it. It links Görlitz's Stadtpark with the eastern bank and carries the road roughly where the 15th meridian east crosses the river.
The bridge crosses the Neisse at about the 15th meridian east, a line that also passes through the Stadthalle built at the western bridgehead in 1906–1910. The crossing was renamed Papst-Johannes-Paul-II.-Brücke on 18 May 2006, with memorial plaques to the pope set into the pavement at both bridgeheads.
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