Liar's Bridge - Sibiu, Romania

Restoration of the Liar's Bridge in Sibiu

In October 2006, Kärcher cleaned the Liar's Bridge in the Romanian city of Sibiu, which was named the "European Capital of Culture" the following year. The work was carried out in close cooperation with restorers, monument conservationists and scientists. Particular attention was paid to preserving the original materials.

The structure, which was erected in 1859, was the first cast-iron bridge in Southeast Europe and is very popular in Romania. It is said that it is called the "Liar's Bridge" because it will collapse as soon as a liar tries to cross it. The construction, located at the heart of the medieval city, spans 10.5 metres. It consists of cast iron and brickwork and its foundations are made of sandstone building blocks. Cornice-shaped sandstone bars transfer the reaction force of the bridge's arch into the brick wall lying directly underneath.

As part of the restoration work, the old wall and the natural stone were first brushed. Several centimetre-thick layers of dirt, scaling and crust formation were removed from the stone. Loose dirt was blown off at a low pressure of 2 to 3 bar with a Kärcher GS jet gun and some stubborn layers were worn away and thinned out. Aluminium silicate was used as a spray agent. The cast-iron section of the bridge was stripped with a Kärcher dry-ice blaster. The advantage of this restoration procedure is that it is non-corrosive and hardly abrasive. As a result, the old coatings which had been superimposed over each other several times could be gently removed for the first time, without destroying the "casting skin" on the iron surface which offers natural anti-corrosion protection.