Roudia Bridge – the most beautiful medieval bridge in Cyprus
So, here is the way to go to Roudia Bridge: (It has been more than 4 months since we went for a Jeep trip (Christmas time). I shall try to recollect as much as possible. If you do follow the directions below and have something which can enhance the details, drop in a mail/comment.
- First, go to Kelefos bridge. If you don’t know to go to Kelefos bridge, checkout my other post on kelefos bridge. Once you get down the slope, the road seems to go across the river. Those visiting Kelefos bridge, park here. But, to go to Roudia bridge, you have to make this river crossing. Check out the photo below from our Jeep trip many ago. Of course, at that time, i didn’t know about the Roudia Bridge and just did this crossing for fun.
- Once you cross the river, the road climbs up. Keep heading towards Pera Vasa picnic site. At the pera vasa picnic site, you should see a treek trunk on display. This was supposed to be the biggest/oldest tree in the region.
- After you cross the Pera Vasa Picnic site, you will come to a T-junction, where you have to turn right. I think the one on the right goes towards Mylikouri and the other towards Arminou. Not sure about this, but I am sure that you have take a right here.
- If you keep going, you will come to a big fork in the road. In the middle of the fork, you will see a brown-board with an arrow to the left saying “Venetian Bridge”. This board points to a trail going down the hill. I don’t know whether this train goes to Roudia bridge, but the bridge is far away from here. You have to take the road going right (and downwards) towards Pano Panagia. We took the other one and went for a long distance and returned back. The road was too narrow to even attempt a 3-point turn and we had to travel a long distance just to find a spot to turn the jeep.
- The moment you enter this road (after about a 10 metres), you will see two branches, one going straight and the other turning right. You have to turn right on this one. The one going straight stops at a check-post, probably a private road. This road goes downwards all the way to the bottom of the valley. Don’t get disheartened by the state of the road, you are almost there!
- I assume that you will be on the lookout for a photo-op all throughout the way. If you don’t, better start looking out now. Otherwise, you will miss the bridge like we did. At one point, you will take a right and then go over a small road-bridge which goes over a river. The river should appear on your left with trees on either side. The photo below gives you an example as how the scene should look like.
- The moment you pass this bridge, the road turns left and passes through a big open area which also has signs such as “Lighting fires is prohibited in this area”. At the end of the open area, the road turns right and upwards. Don’t go there. Look left and there you have the bridge!
Unfortunately, we didn’t find the bridge so easily. The moment we entered this open area, we saw a jeep speed of ahead of us climbing onto the road upwards. We also decided that it would be best to ask someone about the location. So, all our eyes were on the jeep ahead of us that we missed looking towards the left where we would have found the bridge. We chased the jeep for another 20 mins and came to a fork. At this fork, we saw a board (The only one!) which said “Gefri Roudia” and pointed in the direction we had come from! A little ahead, we saw another jeep and went to enquire. That guy spoke no English at all and didn’t understand the word “bridge”. So, i called up my Cypriot colleague and found that “Gefri” meant a bridge. By this time, another gentleman with his jeep had also joined us. Luckily, he spoke English. He told us that we had to go back and we would find the bridge at the bottom of the valley. So, we turned back and kept driving. This time, when we drove down the final stretch to the bottom of the valley, the bridge was there right ahead of us! Well, i was supposed to watch the road, but what were the others doing? We were so tired by then, that we had some snacks before proceeding for photo sessions!
Getting all the kit ready for the photo session!
Vidhya and Anit tried to cross the river, but it turned out to be too cold for Vidhya!
We are ready to pose wherever you want!
And then, there it is finally, the roudia bridge…
Technorati Tags: cyprus bridge medieval bridges cyprus venetian bridges cyprus roudia bridge kelefos bridge elia bridge
Great directions! I found it with no problems! Just FYI, Vretsia is very well signposted coming from Paphos. I went out that way and there were several signs pointing to Vretsia. Thanks again for the great directions – they are the only directions I could find!
Glad to be of help Evans!
Good read. Just a quick note to mention that bridge in Greek is “Yefiriâ€, not “Gefri†as you seem to have understood.
Regards, GR.
Anith thevai illa muyarchi eduthu bulb vangi irukkan. Cha naan intha trip vara mudiyala, missed fun with all of u, never late now i am planning to go with my wife.
Hi,
We decided to take a day trip to Roudia bridge today and after reading your blog we took a look at the map and decided to approach from the SW of the bridge and visit the abandoned village of Vretsia on the way.
To keep it simple, I will start the route we took from Petra Tou Romiou (Aphrodites Rock), as this is well signposted and a great starting point.
From Aphrodites Rock we headed west towards Pafos for around 13 miles until we came to a right turn for Timi.
We took this turn and then kept going along this road (F622) until we hit a sign for Nata. We headed for Nata and eventually hit a T junction where we turned right for Axylou and continued along this road through Eledio, Agios Georgious and on to Pentalia.
Just after Pentalia there is a right turn for Galataria, we took that turning and headed on through Galataria and then Koilineia. Driving through Koilineia, we saw the sign for Vretsia (4km) but it was actually only just over 2km along a winding mountain road.
Vretsia was really interesting and well worth the photos. As you drive through Vretsia you come to a white church with a signpost outside saying Panagia 12km, to the right of this sign there is another sign which is twisted and shot by a shotgun which says Evagoras “Vretsia” village tavern and “the Tavern is at the starting point of nature trail” with a big red arrow pointing right.
We followed this sign and passed a tavern on the right (Vulture park) which is still in use but not open when we passed.
After the tavern we followed an obvious track downhill (A 4×4 is a must at this point forward) although there is more than one track leading downhill at each junction we took the one which looked most used.
We eventually came to the bottom of the valley and hit the river and an old ruin of a building. Just to the right of this ruin there is a blue arrow telling you to continue left, parallel with the river.
After 5 mins or so you have the river right in front of you and you have to cross it. The road then snakes round left, then right and you have to cross the river twice more. After the third crossing you come out of the river and head slightly up and left and the bridge is right there on your left.
What a great picnic and day out for the family, there was a Cypriot family there already having a picnic and they came over and shared some cheese bread with us which was great.
Once we had finished we headed back towards Telefos Bridge, using the directions you posted but in reverse.
Thanks alot for sharing your experiences on the net along with your route as you seem to be the only one who has ever gone to the trouble of doing it and it definately helped us plan our day out very succesfully.
I hope these directions are of some help to anyone else wishing to approach the bridge from the Pafos direction.
This is a great day out and one that we shall certainly be doing again
Thanks again
simon and family
Thx Simon for the details and good to know that you enjoyed the trip.
It is the personal blogs which give the true information unlike the touristy sites with the standard photos and the 2-3 lines of writeup!
This is a great description, thank you! I also liked the comments describing the SW approach.
A question for you both (Rajaram and Simon), is either possible in a non-4WD vehicle?
From your comments it sounds like probably not, but I thought it worth checking. Thanks!
Yes, it is possible as the slopes are not too much. But a vehicle with a low base might be a problem