Exploring Ponte Vecchio's Beauty: An Italian Adventure 🌅

Ponte Vecchio (“old bridge”), Italian pronunciation: Medieval stone arch bridge with closed spandrels over the Arno River in Florence, Italy. It is the only bridge in Florence that survived World War II. It is known for its shops along the road. Building workshops on such bridges was once a common practice. tanners, Butchers, and farmers were the first to occupy the shops.

Current tenants are jewelers, art dealers, and souvenir shops. His two bridges adjacent to Ponte Vecchio are Ponte Santa Trinita and Ponte Alle Grazie.

The bridge connects Via Por Santa Maria with Via Guicciardini (Borgo San Jacopo and Via de’ Bardi). Although now closed to car traffic, the bridge does involve quite a bit of walking, both for the fame of the place itself and for the fact that it connects sites of great interest to tourists on both sides of the river. people are passing

Piazza Duomo, on one side of Piazza della Signoria, are the areas of Pitti Palace and Santo his Spirito of Oltrarno. The bridge is listed as a monumental structure classified as a National Art Heritage in the list prepared by the Directorate General of Antiquities and Fine Arts in 1901.

The name of Ponte vecchio

This name was given to the oldest bridge in Florence when the bridge over the Caraia River was built and was then called Ponte Nuovo, in contrast to the Ponte Vetus. Beyond its historical value, the bridge was commissioned by Emperor Hadrian in 123 AD to link Roman Florence with Via Nuova in Cassia, and over time played a central role in the city’s road network. has been fulfilled.

History and construction

The bridge spans the narrowest part of the Arno River. It is believed that the bridge was first built in Roman times when the Via Cassia crossed the river at this point. Roman columns were made of stone and the superstructures were of wood. The bridge was first chartered in 996, destroyed by a flood in 1117, and rebuilt in stone.

In 1218, the wooden structure Ponte alla Caraia was built nearby, giving it the name Ponte Nuovo, in comparison to the older structure. As Giovanni Villani wrote in his book The New Book, it was washed away again in 1333, except for the two central columns. Rebuilt in 1345.

Giorgio Vasari captured the traditional view of the time attributing his designs to Taddeo Gaddi. Giotto is one of the few Trecento artists to be remembered 200 years later. Modern historians list Neri di Fioravanti as a candidate for Master Builder.

A small loggia at the central opening of the bridge has a weathered votive stone inscribed with “Nel trentatrè dopo il mille-trecento, il ponte cadde, per diluvio dell’ acque”. Poi dieci anni, come al Comun piacque, rifatto fu con Questo adornamento. Manelli’s Tower was built at the southeast corner of the bridge to protect these.

Components of the bridge Ponte Vecchio

The bridge contains three segmental arches.

The main arch has a span of 30 meters and the two side arches each have a span of 27 meters. The pitch of the arches is 3.5 to 4.4 meters and the ratio of span to pitch is 5:

1. Flat-segmented arches required fewer piers than the semicircular arches traditionally used by the Romans and facilitated access and navigation for animal-drawn carts. Another notable design element is the large square at the center of the bridge, described by Leon Battista Alberti as the city’s outstanding jewel.

A stone with an inscription of Dante records the location of the entrance to the bridge where Buondelmonte de Buondelmonti was killed by the Amidei clan in 1215, sparking a street battle between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Shops and merchants were always on the bridge and, with the approval of the Bargello, laid out their goods on tables in front of the compound.

Later additions and changes to Ponte Vecchio

Cosimo I commissioned Giorgio Vasari to build the Vasari Corridor in 1565 to connect the Palazzo Vecchio and the Pitti Palace. Part of this corridor passes over the Ponte Vecchio.

To increase its prestige and make the bridge cleaner, a decree was issued in 1595 prohibiting butchers from entering or leaving the bridge, which is still in force today. The Butchers’ Association had monopolized the shop on the bridge since 1442.

The back store seen upstream was added in the 17th century.

Later additions and changes to Ponte Vecchio

20th century in Ponte Vecchio

In 1900, to honor and pay tribute to the 4th-century birth of the great Florentine sculptor and master goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini, the bridge’s principal goldsmiths gave Florentine sculptor Raphael Romanelli atop the fountain. I commissioned a bronze bust of Cellini standing. It is located in the middle of the east side of the bridge and is still in place today.

Damage during World War II, shortly after liberation in August 1944; During World War II, unlike all other bridges in Florence, the Ponte Vecchio was not destroyed by the Germans during their retreat before the advance of the British Eighth Army on 4 August 1944. bottom.

According to many locals and tour guides, this happened on short notice from Hitler. However, access to the Ponte Vecchio was blocked by the destruction of the buildings on either end of the bridge, which were subsequently rebuilt combining original and contemporary designs. The bridge was extremely damaged in the 1966 Arno Flood.

About art and effect in Ponte Vecchio

The bridge is mentioned in Giacomo Puccini’s aria “O mio babbino caro”.

Murals by Grossi Florentino, created by students and directed by Napier Waller.

In 2005-2006, city officials removed 5,500 padlocks, so-called love locks, from the railings surrounding Cellini’s bust. The city council said the padlock was aesthetically pleasing and damaged the bust and railing. There is a fine for installing a love lock on a bridge.

Have you built a bridge?

However, today’s construction is a bit cryptic. Although the 16th-century artist and chronicler Giorgio Vasari attributed the bridge to Taddeo Gaddi, its construction was inspired by Dominican monasticism with a keen sense of proportion, harmony, and the use of numbers. It seems that it shows the involvement of the samurai.

When the Medici moved from Palazzo Vecchio to Palazzo Pitti, they needed a route from the Uffizi Gallery across the Arno to Palazzo Pitti so that they would not come into contact with the people they ruled. I decided it was necessary to do so. The result was the Coridoio Vasariano, built by Giorgio Vasari in 1565, above a small goldsmith’s workshop on the Ponte Vecchio.

The Ponte Vecchio has had shops since the 13th century. Initially, there were shops of all kinds, butchers, and fishmongers, but later tanners also appeared, whose “industrial waste” caused a considerable stench in the area. In 1593, Ferdinand I decreed that only goldsmiths and jewelers were allowed to have shops on the bridge to improve the well-being of all, including himself, in crossing the bridge.