De Bosset Bridge

The De Bosset Bridge — formerly called the Drapano Bridge — stretches 689 metres across the lagoon at the edge of Argostoli, making it the longest stone bridge over the sea in Greece. It was built in 1813 during the British Protectorate of the Ionian Islands by Colonel Charles Philippe de Bosset, a Swiss officer in British service who commanded the garrison on Cephalonia. The British period left a more visible mark on this island than on most other Ionian Islands; the bridge is its most tangible monument.

A lone marble obelisk rises from a platform in the middle of the bridge, testament to the era when British engineers and administrators believed they were bringing civilisation to the eastern Mediterranean. The inscription's tone sits oddly with the fact that the bridge genuinely is a fine piece of civil engineering and is still in daily use two centuries later. Walking the bridge at sunset, with the lagoon glinting on both sides and the town behind you, is one of the most pleasant free things to do in Argostoli.

things to do sight
A story
De Bosset funded much of the bridge himself and commissioned an obelisk to stand in the middle of it, inscribed in Greek: "To the glory of the British nation." When he departed Cephalonia, he took a scale model of the bridge back to London as a gift — it eventually made its way to the National Army Museum, where it remains.