Alte Brücke

Alte Brücke crosses the Saar in Saarbrücken, linking St. Johann with Alt-Saarbrücken. The historic bridge now welcomes pedestrians and cyclists, with wheelchair access across its route.

Count Philipp II ordered its construction between 1546 and 1549 after flooding prevented Emperor Charles V from crossing the river. It became the first bridge over the Saar after the earlier Roman crossing fell into disrepair during the early Middle Ages. Destruction and rebuilding reshaped the structure at least twice, while urban development and river straightening removed some original arches. In 1904, two central piers expanded to hold an equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I, later removed after the Second World War. A steel extension appeared in the early 1960s to span the new city highway, and restoration plans announced in 2021 proposed replacing it.

Postage stamps have carried its image, while the crossing still gives you a direct route between two Saarbrücken districts.

City: Saarbrücken
Content updated: 2026-06-22

Image: Oktobersonne CC BY-SA 4.0
Image: Peter Wittgens, Neuss CC BY-SA 3.0
Image: scanned by NobbiPPublic domain
Image: HugoPublic domain

Take this page with you

The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.

Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Saarbrücken. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.

What is myTuur?

myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.