Bridge of Sighs Ponte dei Sospiri | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 45°26′03″N12°20′27″E / 45.43406°N 12.34086°E |
Crosses | Rio di Palazzo |
Characteristics | |
Design | Arch bridge |
Material | Istrian stone |
Total length | 11 metres (36 ft) |
History | |
Designer | Antonio Contin |
Construction start | 1600 (year) |
Construction end | 1603 (year) |
Location | |
Click on the map for a fullscreen view |
The Bridge of Sighs (Italian: Ponte dei Sospiri, Venetian : Ponte de i Sospiri) is a bridge in Venice, Italy. The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone, has windows with stone bars, passes over the Rio di Palazzo, and connects the New Prison (Prigioni Nuove) to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. It was designed by Antonio Contino, whose uncle Antonio da Ponte designed the Rialto Bridge. It was built in 1600. [1]
The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge's English name was bestowed by Lord Byron in the 19th century as a translation from the Italian "Ponte dei sospiri", [2] [3] from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice through the window before being taken down to their cells. [4] [5]
Numerous other bridges around the world have been nicknamed after the Bridge of Sighs — see Bridge of Sighs (disambiguation).
The 1861 opera Le pont des soupirs ("The Bridge of Sighs") by Jacques Offenbach has the name of the bridge as a title.
The Bridge of Sighs features heavily in the plot of the 1979 film A Little Romance . One of the characters tells of a tradition that if a couple kiss in a gondola beneath the Bridge of Sighs in Venice at sunset while the church bells toll, they will be in love forever.
Bridge of Sighs is the title of the second solo studio album released in April 1974 by English rock guitarist and songwriter, Robin Trower.
A Bridge of Sighs is mentioned in the opening line of “Itchycoo Park” by the Small Faces.
Marillion, an English progressive rock band, mentions this particular bridge in their song Jigsaw. ('We are renaissance children becalmed beneath the Bridge of Sighs'). [6]
Giles Corey, an American slowcore band, likewise mentions this bridge in their song No One Is Ever Going To Want Me. [7]
Renowned American architect H. H. Richardson used the bridge as inspiration when designing part of the Allegheny County Jail complex in Pittsburgh. It was completed in 1888 and features a similar enclosed arched walkway that connects the courthouse and jail, therefore bearing the same name.
Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 126 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are linked by 472 bridges. The islands are in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay lying between the mouths of the Po and the Piave rivers. In 2020, around 258,685 people resided in greater Venice or the Comune di Venezia, of whom around 51,000 live in the historical island city of Venice and the rest on the mainland (terraferma). Together with the cities of Padua and Treviso, Venice is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE), which is considered a statistical metropolitan area, with a total population of 2.6 million.
Francesco Foscari was the 65th Doge of the Republic of Venice from 1423 to 1457. His reign, the longest of all Doges in Venetian history, lasted 34 years, 6 months and 8 days, and coincided with the inception of the Italian Renaissance.
Piazza San Marco, often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as la Piazza. The Piazzetta is an extension of the Piazza towards San Marco basin in its southeast corner. The two spaces together form the social, religious and political centre of Venice and are referred to together. This article relates to both of them.
The Doge's Palace is a palace built in Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice in northern Italy. The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme authority of the former Republic of Venice. It was built in 1340 and extended and modified in the following centuries. It became a museum in 1923 and is one of the 11 museums run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.
Marino Faliero was the 55th Doge of Venice, appointed on 11 September 1354.
The Grand Canal is the largest channel in Venice, Italy, forming one of the major water-traffic corridors in the city.
The bucentaur was the ceremonial barge of the doges of Venice. It was used every year on Ascension Day up to 1798 to take the doge out to the Adriatic Sea to perform the "Marriage of the Sea" – a ceremony that symbolically wedded Venice to the sea.
Antonio da Ponte (1512–1597) was a Venetian architect and engineer, most famous for his rebuilding of the Rialto Bridge in Venice.
The Bridge of Sighs is a bridge in Venice. Bridge of Sighs may also refer to:
The Vasari Corridor is an elevated enclosed passageway in Florence, central Italy, connecting the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti. Beginning on the south side of the Palazzo Vecchio, it joins the Uffizi Gallery and leaves on its south side, crossing the Lungarno dei Archibusieri, then following the north bank of the River Arno until it crosses the river at Ponte Vecchio. At the time of construction, the corridor had to be built around the Torre dei Mannelli, using brackets, because the tower's owners refused to alter it. The corridor conceals part of the façade of the Church of Santa Felicità. It then snakes its way over rows of houses in the Oltrarno district, becoming narrower, to finally join the Palazzo Pitti. The corridor's full length is approximately one kilometre.
Piombi is a former prison in the Doge's Palace in Venice. The name of the prison refers to its position directly under the roof of the palace, which was covered with slabs of lead. In winter, these slabs let the cold pass and they acted as a conductor in the summer heat, imposing harsh conditions for inmates.
Nicolò da Ponte was the 87th Doge of Venice from 1578 to 1585. He reigned in a fairly quiet period.
Carlo Ponti was a Swiss-born optician and photographer active in Venice from about 1848.
Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice is a blank verse tragedy in five acts by Lord Byron, published and first performed in 1821.
Venetian Renaissance architecture began rather later than in Florence, not really before the 1480s, and throughout the period mostly relied on architects imported from elsewhere in Italy. The city was very rich during the period, and prone to fires, so there was a large amount of building going on most of the time, and at least the facades of Venetian buildings were often particularly luxuriantly ornamented.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Venice, Veneto, Italy.
The Riva degli Schiavoni is a monumental waterfront in Venice. It is located in the sestiere of Castello and extends along the San Marco basin in the stretch from the Ponte della Paglia bridge, close to the Doge's Palace to the rio di Ca' di Dio.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Venice:
Preceded by Venetian Arsenal | Venice landmarks Bridge of Sighs | Succeeded by Ca' d'Oro |