Serravalle Bridge and Forre Laviche
The Serravalle di Bronte Bridge once connected the hinterland of Sicily to Catania and Messina.
It was built in 1121 at the behest of Count Roger, who dedicated it to the memory of his mother Adelasia, this is evident from an epigraph, carved on stone limestone on the right wing, to the north.
The Norman bridge is a very daring work, made up of hydrodynamic piles that support the medieval arches. The bridge is humpbacked and chromatically characterized by the use of local basalt stones, alternating with white tuff ashlars, with a very particular two-tone effect.
The Norman bridge is built on the lava gorges, next to an ancient farm where the façade of the former Church of the Placa Serravalle, dedicated to San Francesco di Paola, stands out, and near the remains of an old water mill.
The Simeto lava gorges offer at the foot of Bronte a unique, harsh and wild but also very suggestive and well preserved mini-environment. The lava of ancient eruptions that filled the primitive bed of the Simeto has over the centuries been eroded and powerfully dug by the power of the river in a deep incision. From the Serravalle bridge it is possible to see the initial part of the erosion. The lava gorges begin with an overhang and a wild ravine, called by the Bronte people "u bazu 'a càntira", that is the leap of the Cantera, where, under the two nearby bridges Cantera and Serravalle, the rivers Simeto and Troina foaming over the lava and on the sandstone blocks.
The Bronte area represents the initial stretch of the river and is certainly the wildest. Continuing along the course of the Simeto river, in the territory of Adrano, you will find the Adrano's lava gorges.
