Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by LilHelpa (talk | contribs) at 22:09, 10 October 2010 (→History and construction: General fixes and Typo fixing using AWB (7069)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

43°46′4.76″N 11°15′11.49″E / 43.7679889°N 11.2531917°E / 43.7679889; 11.2531917

The Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge", Italian pronunciation: [ˈponte ˈvɛkkjo]) is a Medieval bridge over the Arno River, in Florence, Italy, noted for still having shops built along it, as was once common. Butchers initially occupied the shops; the present tenants are jewellers, art dealers and souvenir sellers. It has been described as Europe's oldest wholly-stone, closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge, but there are far older segmental arch bridges such as Alconétar Bridge. The Ponte Vecchio's two neighbouring bridges are the Ponte Santa Trinità and the Ponte alle Grazie.

History and construction

The bridge spans the Arno at its narrowest point where it is believed that a bridge was first built in Roman times, when the via Cassia crossed the river at this point. The Roman piers were of stone, the superstructure of wood. The bridge first appears in a document of 996. After being destroyed by a flood in 1117 it was reconstructed in stone but swept away again in 1333 save two of its central piers, as noted by Giovanni Villani in his Nuova Cronica. It was rebuilt in 1345, Giorgio Vasari recorded the tradition in his day, that attributed its design to Taddeo Gaddi, besides Giotto one of the few artistic names of the trecento still recalled two hundred years later. Modern historians present Neri di Fioravanti as a possible candidate. Sheltered in a little loggia at the central opening of the bridge is a weathered dedication stone, which once read 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. The Torre dei Mannelli was built at the southeast corner of the bridge to defend it.

The bridge consists of three segmental arches: the main arch has a span of 30 meters (98 ft) the two side arches each span 27 meters (88 ft). The rise of the arches is between 3.5 and 4.4 meters (11½ to 14½ feet), and the span-to-rise ratio 5:1.

It has always hosted shops and merchants who displayed their goods on tables before their premises, after authorization of the Bargello (a sort of a lord mayor, a magistrate and a police authority). The back shops (retrobotteghe) that may be seen from upriver, were added in the seventeenth century.

It is said that the economic concept of bankruptcy originated here: when a merchant could not pay his debts, the table on which he sold his wares (the "banco") was physically broken ("rotto") by soldiers, and this practice was called "bancorotto" (broken table; possibly it can come from "banca rotta" which means "broken bank"). Not having a table anymore, the merchant was not able to sell anything.

During World War II, the Ponte Vecchio was not destroyed by Germans during their retreat of August 4, 1944, unlike all other bridges in Florence. This was allegedly because of an express order by Hitler. Access to Ponte Vecchio was, however, obstructed by the destruction of the buildings at both ends, which have since been rebuilt using a combination of original and modern design.

Vasari's Corridor

In order to connect the Palazzo Vecchio (Florence's town hall) with the Palazzo Pitti, in 1565 Cosimo I de Medici had Giorgio Vasari build the famous Vasari Corridor above it. To enforce the prestige of the bridge, in 1593 the Medici Grand Dukes prohibited butchers from selling there; their place was immediately taken by several gold merchants. The corporative association of butchers had monopolised the shops on the bridge since 1442. A stone with an inscription from Dante (Paradiso xvi. 140-7) records the spot at the entrance to the bridge where Buondelmonte de' Buondelmonti was murdered on behalf of the Amidei, in 1215, initiating the urban fighting of the Guelfs and Ghibellines.

Recent history

Along the Ponte Vecchio, there were many padlocks locked to various places, especially to the railing around the statue of Benvenuto Cellini. This is a recent tradition for the Ponte Vecchio, although it has been practiced in Russia and in Asia before. It was perhaps introduced by the padlock shop owner at the end of the bridge. It is popularly connected to idea of love and lovers: by locking the padlock and throwing the key into the river, the lovers became eternally bonded. This is an example of the negative impact of mass tourism: thousands of padlocks needed to be removed frequently, spoiling or damaging the structure of the centuries-old bridge; however, it seems to have decreased after the city administration put a sign on the bridge mentioning a 50€ penalty for those caught locking something to the fence.

The bridge was severely damaged in the 1966 Flood of the River Arno in Florence.

The bridge is mentioned in the famous aria O mio babbino caro.

Gallery

• The bridge as it looked in 1909
• Ponte Vecchio and the River Arno in June, 1983
• View from the Uffizi
• A four-person scull passes under the middle span of the bridge in 2009
• Ponte Vecchio during the height of the Summer tourist season.
• Ponte Vecchio and Vasari Corridor form Galleria degli Uffizi
• The 14th-century sundial on the Ponte Vecchio
• Padlocks on the railing of the statue of Cellini

See also

• Vasari Corridor

References

1. ^ Ponte Vecchio. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007.
2. "Dizionario d'ortografia e di pronunzia" (in Italian). Rai. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
3. ^ Touring Club Italiano, Firenze e dintorni 1964:321
4. ^ Zucconi, Guido (1995). Florence: An Architectural Guide. San Giovanni Lupatoto, Vr, Italy: Arsenale Editrice srl. ISBN 88-7743-147-4.
5. Bartlett, Kenneth R. (1992). The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance. Toronto: D.C. Heath and Company. ISBN 0-669-20900-7 (Paperback). Page 40.
6. Melaragno, Michele G (1998). Preliminary Design of Bridges for Architects and Engineers. Marcel Dekker. p. 3. ISBN 0824701844.
7. Translated it would read, "In the thirty-third year following thirteen hundred, the bridge fell, from a watery flood: ten years later, at the pleasure of the Commune, it was rebuilt, with this adornment". (Touring Club Italiano, Firenze e dintorni 1964:321)
8. Ponte Vecchio at Structurae. Retrieved on 2007-02-16
9. Oxford English Dictionary, it gives the origin as from the Italian banca rotta "broken bench", but not specifically from this bridge. online, ''.
10. Dictionary.com, an Ask.com Service, it gives the origin as from the Italin Banca Rotta "broken moneylenders bench", and is first recorded in 1552. It does not specifically link it with this bridge, ''.
11. Encyclopaedia Britannica online, 'Ponte Vecchio'.
12. Brucker, Gene (1983). Renaissance Florence. University of California Press. p. 8. ISBN 0520046951.
13. Sculpted by Raffaele Romanelli in 1900 (Touring Club Italiano, Firenze e dintorni 1964:321).
14. Ponte Vecchio at web site of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz

• Fletcher, Banister: A History of Architecture (London: The Butterworth Group, 1987, ISBN 0-408-01587-X) pp. 756–757
• Chiarugi, Andrea, 'Maintenance of the Ponte Vecchio historical bridge in Florence', in Extending the Lifespan of Structures, Vol. 2 (San Francisco: IABSE Symposium Report, 1995) pp. 1479–1484
• Graf, Bernhard, Bridges that Changed the World (Munich, Germany: Prestel, 2002, ISBN 3791327011) pp. 38–39

External links

• Independent study of Ponte Vecchio with Pictures
• Ponte Vecchio at Structurae
• Ponte Vecchio, Florence
• Ponte Vecchio Overview

v t e Tourism in Florence
Museums, galleries and palaces	Bargello Casa Buonarroti Casa Guidi Galleria dell'Accademia David Garden of Archimedes Loggia del Bigallo Loggia dei Lanzi Loggia del Mercato Nuovo Loggia del Pesce Loggia Rucellai Museo dell'Opera del Duomo Museo Galileo Museo Nazionale Alinari della Fotografia Museo Nazionale di San Marco Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze La Specola National Archaeological Museum Orsanmichele Ospedale degli Innocenti Palazzo dell'Arte dei Beccai Palazzo Davanzati Palazzo Della Stufa Palazzo Gondi Palazzo Medici Riccardi Magi Chapel Palazzo Pitti Museo delle Porcellane Palazzo Spini Feroni Palazzo Strozzi Palazzo Vecchio Studiolo of Francesco I Stibbert Museum Uffizi Vasari Corridor
Religious sites	Basilicas Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore S Croce Baroncelli Chapel Pazzi Chapel S Lorenzo Medici Chapels S Maria Novella Tornabuoni Chapel SS Annunziata S Marco S Maria del Carmine Brancacci Chapel S Miniato al Monte S Spirito S Trinita Bartolini Salimbeni Chapel Sassetti Chapel Churches Badia Fiorentina Battistero di San Giovanni Certosa del Galluzzo Ognissanti Oratorio dei Vanchetoni Oratory of Gesù Pellegrino Oratory of S Thomas Aquinas Orsanmichele S Ambrogio Ss Apostoli S Felicita S Frediano in Cestello S Gaetano S Giovannino degli Scolopi S Giovannino dei Cavalieri S Jacopo sopr'Arno S Maria degli Angeli S Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi S Maria Maggiore S Martino del Vescovo S Pancrazio S Salvatore al Vescovo S Salvi Ss Simone e Giuda S Stefano al Ponte Other Great Synagogue
Towers (Torri)	degli Amidei degli Alberti dei Belfredelli dei Della Bella dei Gianfigliazzi dei Mannelli dei Pulci Giotto's Campanile
Library	Biblioteca Riccardiana (Palazzo Medici Riccardi) British Institute of Florence Gabinetto Vieusseux (Palazzo Strozzi) Kunsthistorisches Institut Laurentian Library National Central Library
Landmarks	Fountain of Neptune Giotto's Campanile Monument to Dante Ponte Vecchio
Theatres	Teatro Comunale Teatro della Pergola Teatro Verdi
Squares	Piazza del Duomo Piazza della Repubblica Piazza della Signoria Piazza Santa Croce Piazza San Lorenzo Piazzale Michelangelo
Streets	Via Cavour Via de' Tornabuoni
Forts	Belvedere Fortezza da Basso
Gardens and parks	Bardini Gardens Boboli Gardens Giardino dell'Iris Giardino delle Rose Orto Botanico di Firenze Parco delle Cascine
Villas	Medici villas di Castello La Petraia di Careggi Medicea L'Ambrogiana del Poggio Imperiale Gamberaia I Tatti Il Gioiello La Pietra Rusciano
Events and traditions	Calcio storico fiorentino Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Scoppio del carro
Districts of Florence Trams in Florence

• Deck arch bridges
• Bridges in Florence
• Jewellery districts
• Bridges completed in the 1340s
• Shopping districts and streets in Italy
• Stone bridges