The history of the building of the Budak bridge

Abstract

Over the centuries, the bridging of the Lika River at the mentioned location proved to be indispensable for the resident population, and the greatest challenge for the builders. In order to provide answers to these claims, the following text chronologically presents the actions and events closely related to the mentioned bridge from the middle of the 18th century to the present day, with special reference to its irreplaceable traffic significance for Gospić and its surroundings. Due to its location in the administrative area of the village of Budak, among the local population it is consistently referred to as the adjective “Budački”, and throughout history, together with the bridges of Ribnik, Bilaj, Kaluđerovacand Kosinj, it has been the key crossing point of the largest Lika river. The first knowledge about the bridge at this location is related to graphic sources – military maps of the time, and from the second half of the 19th century, more detailed studies are possible thanks to preserved written and pictorial materials, and project documentation also. The importance of the bridge is to the greatest extent that it was located on the most important road for the Gospić area, which connected Gospić in direction of north and in direction of the border area with Bosnia near Petrovo Selo. Bosnian merchants from the Bihać valley used the bridge to deliver essential food, mainly cereals and corn, and saved the people of Lika from starvation. The people of Gospić knew all this very well and simply could not afford a traffic interruption, so in the middle of the 19th century they built a high-quality and solid stone bridge, which served them reliably for more than eighty years. That the bridge had a quality foundation is also evidenced by the load-bearing elements – foundations, which have been preserved in their original form to the present day and were the main support of every bridge built later.