First Floor

The Bridge

The town of Radgona developed in the Middle Ages on an island in the middle of the Mura. To move people across the water people used boats and rafts. The first record of the bridge that connected the two parts of the town is from 1385. A stone with the date 1573 was incorporated in the river bank. In 1919, the bridge became the border bridge between the Republic of Austria and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The destroyed old wooden bridge was replaced in 1930 with a concrete one. In 1941 German forces crossed the bridge when they attacked Yugoslavia and blew it up in 1945 to hold up the advancing Soviet Army. A temporary bridge survived until 1969 when a new concrete bridge was opened. Since 1991, it is the border bridge between Austria and Slovenia.