Ponte Vecchio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ponte Vecchio over the Arno, Florence.

Ponte Vecchio

The Ponte Vecchio (IPA pronunciation: [ponte vɛkio]) (Italian for Old Bridge)^[1] is a Medieval bridge over the Arno River, in Florence, Italy, noted for having shops (mainly jewellers) built along it. It is Europe's oldest wholly-stone, open-spandrel segmental arch bridge.^[1]

Believed to have been first built in Roman times^[2], it was originally made of wood. After being destroyed by a flood in 1333^[2] it was rebuilt in 1345^[3], this time in stone. Most of the design is attributed to Taddeo Gaddi.^[4] The bridge consists of three segmental arches, the main arch has a span of 30 meters (98 feet) the two side arches each span 27 meters (88 feet). 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.^[5]

It has always hosted shops and merchants (legend says this was originally due to a tax exemption), which displayed their goods on tables after authorisation of the Bargello (a sort of a lord mayor, a magistrate and a police authority).

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.

View of the Ponte Vecchio from above

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.^[2] To enforce the prestige of the bridge, in 1593 he prohibited butchers from selling there; their place was immediately taken by gold merchants. The corporative association of butchers had monopolised the shops on the bridge since 1442.

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.^[6] 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.

Padlocks on the railing of the statue of Cellini on the Ponte Vecchio, before being cut away

Along the Ponte Vecchio, there were many padlocks locked to various places, especially to the railing around the statue of 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 the 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.

^ ^a ^b (2007) Ponte Vecchio. Encyclopædia Britannica.
^ ^a ^b ^c Zucconi, Guido (1995). Florence: An Architectural Guide. San Giovanni Lupatoto, Vr, Italy: Arsenale Editrice srl. ISBN 88-7743-147-4.
^ Melaragno, Michele G (1998). Preliminary Design of Bridges for Architects and Engineers. Marcel Dekker, 3. ISBN 0824701844.
^ (2007) Ponte Vecchio. Encyclopædia Britannica.
^ Ponte Vecchio. Structurae. Retrieved on February 16, 2007.
^ Brucker, Gene (1983). Renaissance Florence. University of California Press, 8. ISBN 0520046951.