Bridge of Lies

The Bridge of Lies (Romanian: Podul Minciunilor, German: Lügenbrücke) crosses Ocnei Street, formerly Burgergasse, which runs down from the Upper Town to the Lower Town, and links Piața Mică to Huet Square. Until the middle of the nineteenth century the street passed here through a curved tunnel under a row of houses that split Piața Mică in two. The spot had been known since the sixteenth century as the „Benches of Lies”. The houses were demolished in 1851, the tunnel was opened up, and a wooden footbridge was first placed over the street. The cast iron bridge was cast in 1859, assembled in Sibiu the following year and officially opened on 17 December 1860. It has a single span of 10.40 m resting on four metal arches bolted together and decorated with rosettes and neo-Gothic plant and geometric ornaments. The southern arches bear the coat of arms of Sibiu, and the northern ones the inscriptions „1859” and „FRIEDRICHS HÜTTE”. Each of the two railings is made of eight panels with radially decorated circles, and at the ends of the bridge, on the edges of the passage below, stand four cast iron lamps. The name comes from the German „Liegebrücke”, the „lying bridge”, so called because it did not rest on piers. The word sounded almost the same as „Lügenbrücke”, the „bridge of lies”, and locals began to call it that; the legends about cheating merchants or lying lovers thrown off the bridge arose to explain the name. The bridge was restored in October 2006 by the German company Kärcher as cultural sponsorship, before Sibiu became European Capital of Culture in 2007. It has been a listed historic monument since 2015, with the code SB-II-m-A-12107. It is a pedestrian bridge, and Ocnei Street below can be walked as well.