Puente de Toledo: Pedro de Ribera's Baroque Showpiece
Why is it significant?
Step onto the Puente de Toledo and walk to the middle, where two little stone pavilions rise from the parapets like altars, each sheltering a saint: on one side San Isidro, on the other his wife, Santa María de la Cabeza.
Key Facts
| Place | Puente de Toledo: Pedro de Ribera's Baroque Showpiece |
|---|---|
| Address | Puente de Toledo, Glorieta de las Pirámides, 28005 Madrid, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 40.39910, -3.71510 |
| Part of Walk | Madrid Río: Royal Bridges, a Buried Motorway and the Slaughterhouse Turned Arts Factory |
| Generated | Generated |
Step onto the Puente de Toledo and walk to the middle, where two little stone pavilions rise from the parapets like altars, each sheltering a saint: on one side San Isidro, on the other his wife, Santa María de la Cabeza.
If the Puente de Segovia is a sober Renaissance statement, this is its exuberant baroque cousin. Pedro de Ribera, the same architect as the chapel at the start of the walk, designed it, and it was completed in 1732. Look at the obelisks, the scrolls, the carved niches: it is a bridge dressed for a procession. Ribera was the favourite of the city council in his day and the despair of later academic critics, who found his doorways and towers far too exuberant... which is exactly why people love them now.
It had to be strong as well as beautiful. Earlier bridges on this spot had been carried away by the river in flood, proof that the much-mocked Manzanares could turn violent when the snow melted in the mountains. Ribera built in granite, and his bridge has survived nearly three centuries of floods, armies and traffic.
The saints have their own story. Legend says that one day the little son of Isidro and María fell into a deep well. The parents knelt and prayed, and the water rose up the shaft until it lifted the child safely to the top. Madrileños still tell that story, and the well associated with it is shown in the city centre, in the Museo de San Isidro.
For two centuries this was the main gateway to Madrid for travellers coming from Toledo and Andalusia, with carts, mules and coaches rattling over the stones. Today it carries only walkers and cyclists, and the traffic hums in tunnels below. On a clear day, look upstream from the middle of the bridge: the dome of San Francisco el Grande and the Royal Palace stand on their ridge above the river, the same skyline Goya painted from the meadow. Continue along the riverside path on the eastern bank. Soon you will see a strange twisted shape of steel lying across the water.