1998 Italia: Venezia (Venice) Famous Bridges

  Locations of visitors to this page
be notified of website changes? subscribe
gondolier

 

Italy ’98

Venezia

San Marco

panoramae

Murano Glass

famous bridges

gondolae

by foot

by boat

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

1998 Italia: Venezia (Venice) Famous Bridges

Ponte di Rialto
Rialto Bridge

Spanning the narrowest point of the Grand Canal, the Ponte di Rialto is renowned as an architectural and engineering achievement of the Renaissance. Rialto, derived from Rivo Alto (high riverbank), is the name of the town situated here long ago.

Following a competition for a permanent replacement for the boat bridge and three wooden bridges which had spanned the Canal Grande at various times since the 12th century, Antonio da Ponte and his nephew, Antonio Contino, won the contract over such luminaries as Michelangelo and Palladio. Designed and built in 1588-1592, it remained the only way to cross on foot until 1853, when the Ponte Accademia went up.

Constructed on some 12,000 wooden pilings which still support the bridge more than 400 years later, the bridge's 24-foot arch was designed to allow passage of armed galleys beneath. The bridge has three walkways: two along the outer balustrades with a wider central walkway leading between two rows of small shops that sell tourist trinkets.

From Ian Littlewood's Venice: A Literary Companion:

The bridge of the Rialto has had a mixed press. In the judgement of the Venetians, says Moryson, it 'deserves to be reputed the eighth miracle of the world.' Coryate, while deploring the 'vicious and licentious varlets' who worked the traghetto underneath it, was in agreement--'the fairest bridge by many degrees for one arch that ever I saw, or heard of.' But then both Moryson and Coryate were there within a few years of the bridge's completion. Others have since been less charitable, condemning it as top-heavy and ungraceful. The dispute is academic. Like the Eiffel Tower, the Rialto has acquired a symbolic status that puts it well beyond the reach of aesthetic judgements.

From Jan Morris' The World of Venice:

Structurally, it was a complete success--during rioting in 1797 they even fired cannon from its steps, to dispel the mobs; and for myself, I would not change a stone of it. I love the quaint old figures of St. Mark and St. Theodore, on the station side of the bridge. I love the Annunciation on the other side, angel at one end, Virgin at the other, Holy Ghost serenely aloft in the middle. I love the queer whale-back of the bridge, humped above the markets, and its cramped little shops, facing resolutely inwards. I think one of the great moments of the Grand Canal occurs when you swing around the bend beside the fish market and see the Rialto there before you, precisely as you have imagined it all your life, one of the household images of the world, and one of the few Venetian monuments to possess the quality of geniality.

Ponte dei Sospiri
Bridge of Sighs

The name "Bridge of Sighs" was invented in the 19th century, when Lord Byron helped to popularize the belief that the bridge's name was inspired by the sighs of condemned prisoners as they were led through it to the executioner. In fact, the days of inquisitions and summary executions were over by the time the bridge was built, and the cells under the palace roof were occupied mostly by small-time criminals.

The bridge was built in 1600 A.D. by Antonio Contino, connecting the Prigioni (Doge's Palace) with the inquisitor's rooms in the main palace, from which Casanova escaped. (Does the builder's name ring a bell? Check out the Ponte di Rialto to see why.) The Ponte dei Sospiri is included in the guided Itinerari Segreti (Secret Itinerary) tour of the Doge's Palace, which includes the prisons, torture chambers, and other rooms that normally aren't open to visitors. In the off-season you may be able to wander across the bridge on a self-guided visit; ask at the palace ticket window.

previous   next

Have you found errors nontrivial or marginal, factual, analytical and illogical, arithmetical, temporal, or even typographical? Please let me know; drop me email. Thanks!
 

What's New?  •  Search this Site  •  Website Map
Travel  •  Burning Man  •  San Francisco
Kilts! Kilts! Kilts!  •  Macintosh  •  Technology  •  CU-SeeMe
This page is copyrighted 1993-2010 by Lila, Isaac, Rose, and Mickey Sattler. All rights reserved.