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The Bridge of Sighs (Italian: Ponte dei Sospiri) is one of many bridges in Venice. The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone and has windows with stone bars. It passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the old prisons to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. It was designed by Antoni Contino (whose uncle Antonio da Ponte had designed the Rialto Bridge), and built between 1600 and 1603.
The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice out the window before being taken down to their cells. In reality, 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 criminals1.
A local legend says that lovers will be assured eternal love if they kiss on a gondola at sunset under the bridgecitation needed.
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Cultural references
The following are mentions and references of the Bridge of Sighs in popular culture:
Literature
- In 2007, novelist Richard Russo published The Bridge of Sighs, a novel set in Venice and in a small fictional town in upstate New York.
- In his novel Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow mentions "the Bridge of Sighs, the iron catwalk that connected the Tombs with the Criminal Courts Building" in Gilded Age New York City.
1869 Mark Twain's book, Innocents Abroad, (Chapter 22) he goes under this bridge in a Gondola and describes the bridge in context with the masked judges and masked executioners and the Council of Three.
Music
- The Charles Aznavour song "Que C'est Triste Venise" references the bridge in most of the versions Aznavour recorded it in. "Bridge of Sighs" is also the title track of an 1974 album by Robin Trower.
- The bridge is also mentioned in the Marillion song "Jigsaw", from their 1984 album Fugazi, in the The Small Faces' hit song "Itchycoo Park", in the Gerard Lenorman song "Voici les Clefs", and in the David Sylvian song "I Surrender", from his 1999 album Dead Bees on a Cake.
Movies
- A Little Romance (1979).
Theatre
- The Bridge of Sighs is referenced in Howard Barker's 1985 play, Scenes from an Execution. "URGENTINO: There is a bridge over there. On one side of the bridge there is a carpet. And on the other side of the bridge there is bare stone. And on this side of the bridge there are cushions, and on the other side there is straw. And on this side there are windows, but on the other side it is dark. On this side we laugh, and on that side they cry. Do you know the bridge? GALACTIA: The Bridge of Sighs." (291)2
References
- ^ Bridge of Sighs - Venice for Visitors
- ^ Barker, Howard (September 1990). Collected Plays, Vol. 1 (Claw, No End of Blame, Victory, the Castle, Scenes from an Execution). London: Calder. ISBN 978-0714541617.
See also
The name "Bridge of Sighs" has since been applied by association to other similar covered bridges around the world, including:
- Puente de los Suspiros ("Bridge of Sighs" in Spanish), a bridge in the bohemian city ofBarranco, Lima, Peru
- a bridge in Cambridge, England
- a bridge in Oxford, England
- a bridge in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- a bridge connecting the Allegheny County Courthouse proper to the jail building, both designed by American architect H.H. Richardson in 1884
- the bridge which spans the Swan Boat pond in Boston's Public Garden is sometimes jokingly referred to as the "Bridge of Size," a play on words based on the small bridge's vastly overbuilt look
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ponte dei Sospiri |
- Bridge of Sighs in the Structurae database
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- This page was last modified on 7 January 2009, at 21:33.
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