This is the most famous bridge in Greece. According to a folk ballad, the foundations of the bridge collapsed each night. A bird with a human voice told the Head Builder to sacrifice his wife if he wanted to complete the bridge. He obeyed, and the young woman placed a curse on the bridge. But just before she died, she changed the curse to a blessing, fearful that her only brother might die one day trying to cross the accursed bridge. The sacrifice of a human being in a building’s foundations is an ancient custom, and the legends are based on facts. There was a female skeleton among the foundations of a 7th-century tower, excavated west of Lake Baikal, and indications that she was buried alive.