Moonlight Star Trail Above Arab Bridge

A photo composite of multiple exposures. From the photographer: “The Saracen bridge over the Simeto river near Adrano is one of the many small jewels of Sicily. It has ancient origins, even dating back to the Sicilian-Greek period during which it is assumed that a wooden crossing was built to connect the inland areas of Sicily with the Plain of Catania.

During the Roman era the bridge was built in stone with barrel arched spans and remained so until the period of the Arab occupation. In the meantime the bridge had collapsed, in part, probably, due to a flood of the Simeto river and for this reason it was rebuilt by the Arabs on the foundations of the Roman bridge. They used the bases of the main arch of this, however, substituting the canons of their architecture for Roman art and inserting chromatic effects with the alternation of light and dark stones in the ring nuts of the arches. The resulting pointed arch structure, typical of all Islamic architecture, will thus acquire slenderness and lightness. The bridge, in Norman times, was part of an important road axis that connected the city of Troina, the first capital of the reign of Roger I of Altavilla, with Catania. With the arrival of the Normans and until the eighteenth century, the bridge, and the whole vast territory around it, was part of various fiefdoms including the fief of the Duke of Carcaci.

Over the years, the bridge lost importance and important restoration interventions were necessary to preserve its beauty. This shot was taken in the moonlight with the intention of showing the beauty of the gorge carved by the Simeto river on the volcanic rocks. The river gives life to multiple streams and waterfalls among the lava stones that show all the richness of shapes and colors of the river ridges. To photograph both the Simeto and the celestial rotation of the polar, it was necessary to position the tripod in the river in front of the falls, moving back so that the polar rose above the profile of the bridge. For about 5 and a half hours the tripod and camera remained in a spot where the river water was at least 50-70 cm high. The final image, however, tells the beauty of this place while a curtain of stars shows its circles as the ideal background for this magnificent place rich in history and nature.”

Technical details: Canon 6d, Canon 8-15mm, f/5.6, 30 sec, iso 1000, 592 shots