The Three-Arched Bridge

"The Three Arched Bridge" ("Ura Me Tri Harqe") is a 1978 novel by Ismail Kadare. The story concerns the construction of a strategically important Balkan bridge in 1377 in the waning days of the Byzantine Empire, as the Ottomans were advancing into southeastern Europe. Though the scope is historical in this sense, the story itself is a clever metaphor for ignorance and xenophobia. Told by a Byzantine monk, Gjon, as a history and cautionary tale, the narrative as seen through his eyes is one of superficiality. As a stand-in for prissy, unhappy bureaucrats everywhere, he takes events on their face value without ever trying to understand the larger forces at work. Both the river Ujena e Keqe and the bridge itself are major characters in the book, and they undergo the most significant transformations.

The most startling event is when a "volunteer" is immured inside the bridge in order to make a "sacrifice" to the river. The man's face is captured in the plaster that surrounds him, as unforgettable as it is horrifying. Though clearly a punishment for the crime of sabotage against the bridge, as Gjon recounts this event, it is less an act of vengeance than it is a true sacrifice. It becomes a symbol for the Balkans as a whole against the Ottoman threat. But more than that, it becomes a symbol for the ignorance of and squabbling among tiny Balkan principalities that allowed the Ottoman occupation to happen.