There are places in the world that are effortlessly picture-perfect. Camprodon, in the Pyrenees an hour and a half away from Costa Brava, is one of those places. The view of its iconic bridge and the houses flanking river Ter is a ready-made postcard.
The settlement of this site dates from the late 12th century, centered on a market close to a nearby monastery. The bridge, El Pont Nou, was built a century later. Its name, New, as well as its appearance are good indications that the town was prosperous enough at the time of its construction to afford replacing an older crossing with something much grander.
The tall arch of the bridge is somewhat incongruous with the shallow stream that it spans. Judging by the other pictures found on the web, the river gets fuller in seasons other than mid-summer, but never to the point where the waters rise by more than a few inches. I doubt that it was ever navigable either. It may have been a case of putting grandiosity of the landmark ahead of its utility, but the visual impact is obviously stunning. It is little surprise that a significant portion of Camprodon photos – not just mine! – have El Pont Nou in the frame or are taken from its span.
I suspect there is a lot of contentment in having a balcony such as the guy in lower right portion of this shot enjoys.
In fact, there are several other bridges over the Ter and its tributary El Ritort in the relatively small town. From this crossing, the houses look as if transported from Girona on a reduced scale.
The main commercial drag of Camprodon, Carrer València, has plenty of colorful buildings and interesting artisan boutiques.
I normally find commercial sections of small towns the least enticing for lingering, but this street is just too attractive. And neither vehicular no pedestrian traffic is too frequent to disturb a nice stroll.
Another crossing and another perspective of the river banks.
The couple of hours that my schedule allocated to Camprodon felt sufficient for getting acquainted with the place. But prevalence of those bridge shots suggests that I under-explored it beyond its dazzling façade. Good thing that I am very likely to keep returning to Catalonia and its gems.
These and other pictures of Camprodon can be found in my recent Catalonia Flickr album.