Oh, hey!  I’ve been having so much fun working on my future April AtoZ posts that I nearly forgot to make a regular post for this week!  But I’ve had this idea for a while, so now is the perfect time to share.  This photo is called Dragon on Ljubljana Bridge by U.K. photographer Victoria Reay.

I initially looked into this bridge after seeing a similar photo in my 1,000 Places to See Before You Die page-a-day calendar, but I think Victoria’s photo is even better than the one from the calendar.  Further searching proved that this is a very popular bridge to photograph when in the capital city of Slovenia, and indeed, according to the Ljubljana official tourist website, “If you haven’t been photographed next to a Dragon Bridge dragon, you can hardly claim that you have visited Ljubljana.”  The site continues:

Constructed between 1900 and 1901, it was Ljubljana’s first reinforced concrete structure and one of the largest bridges of its kind to be built in Europe.  … The Dragon Bridge was given its Art Nouveau appearance by the Dalmatian architect Jurij Zaninović, … [who] designed the concrete slabs in which the reinforced concrete structure is clad, the balustrades, and the sheet-copper dragon statues. The bridge’s original decorations also include the parapet lamps, once powered by gas.

Here is a postcard of the bridge from 1915 showing those lamps and one of the dragons in the foreground, found on the Wikimedia Commons site and uploaded by contributor Razglednice Milene Žnidaršič:

Here’s another striking photo of one of the large dragons taken by Brazilian photographer Leandro Neumann Ciuffo:

And finally, here is one more beautiful photograph showing more of the Art Nouveau bridge design itself taken by French photographer Jean-Pierre Dalbéra:

I hope you enjoyed these dragon statues — I know that if I ever get to take my European dream vacation, I’ll be marking Ljubljana, Slovenia, as a must-see not only for this bridge, but to enjoy what looks to be a really beautiful city.  For more info you can check out A Travel Guide to Ljubljana the City of Dragons and Myth, an article on The Fairytale Traveler site, written by William Bundy.

Thanks for reading — take care and stay creative, and wish me luck as I continue prepping for what I hope will be an amazing April AtoZ Challenge!

Image credits:
Dragon on Ljubljana Bridge by U.K. photographer Victoria Reay
Postcards of the Dragon Bridge in Ljubljana 1915 by Razglednice Milene Žnidaršič
Dragon Bridge by Leandro Neumann Ciuffo
L’art Nouveau a Ljubljana by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra