Aesepus Bridge
Güverçin Köprüsü
Aesepus Bridge (Turkish Güvencin Köprüsü “Dove Bridge”) is a historic bridge crossing the historic Aesepus River (modern Gönen Çayı). It is almost 20 km north of Gönen in Balıkesir Province, historic Mysia/Hellespont.
The bridge was located on the Roman road along the southern shore of the Sea of Marmara between Kyzikos and Priapos. While the bridge has Late Antique foundations, it was substantially rebuilt in the first half of the thirteenth century when the Laskarid dynasty ruled the empire from Nicaea. Its first construction phase has been dated from the fourth to the sixth centuries. An inscription discovered in the area records the construction of a bridge by Constantine I, which is perhaps connected to its early phase. Two milestones from the reign of Jovian (363-364) were also discovered in the region. The bridge was in ruins by the nineteenth century.
The bridge had a length of almost 160 m and a maximum width of 5.6 m. Its original construction was rubble faced with ashlar. It originally had four large arches over the river, with two smaller ones to the west and five smaller ones to the east. Its four main piers have pointed breakwaters facing the river. The restoration of the bridge included major work on the main piers, which have parallel walls with hollow spaces between them that once supported a Byzantine road. Some of its surviving arches also have repairs with alternating brick and stone courses.
From the travels of Edmund Chishull (1699)
On the top of this hill in three hours we have a near prospect of the sea, and isle of Marmora, with one side of the Peninsula of Cyzicus. By the fifth hour we begin to descend on the other side into a pleasant and green plain…At this place occurs a moderate river with a wooden bridge; and an hour beyond the town a large one with a fair bridge of stone, built by the munificence of Sultan Mahomet the fourth. Here are to be observed the marks of a royal way, denoted by two equal and regular barrows on each side, by which lies the Grand Signior’s road to the wars. Hitherto our way had all along surrounded mount Ida, which often favoured us with the sight of its hoary head, and many rivers flowing from its watry bowels.

From Hasluck (190506)
References
Belke, K. Bithynien und Hellespont (Tabula Imperii Byzantini 13)
Galliazzo, V. I ponti romani, Vol II. Catalogo generale
Fingarova, G. “Late Byzantine Bridges as Markers of Imagined Landscapes” (Levant 51)
Rose, B. and Körpe, R. “The Granicus River Valley Survey Project, 2006” (Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 25.2)
Hasluck. “A Roman Bridge on the Aesepus” (Annual of the British School at Athens 12)
Sources
Chishull, E. Travels in Turkey and Back to England
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