Ponte vecchio bridge in florence The history of florence on the ponte vecchio

A story about the unique Florentine Ponte Vecchio bridge. One of the few remaining fully built bridges. But it is unique for other reasons as well.

Ponte Vecchio is one of the main business cards of the wonderful Florence. It is located at the narrowest point of the Arno River and connects the two parts of the legendary Italian city. This bridge is remarkable for several reasons.

The oldest bridge in Florence

It was built by the architect Neri di Fioravanti in 1345 and to this day the bridge has practically not changed its appearance. Even during the Second World War, it survived, although all other bridges were blown up. True, the reasons are different. Someone believes that thanks to the Resistance, while others believe that Adolf Hitler himself forbade the destruction of cultural heritage by personal decree. By the way, one of the few modernizations of the bridge is associated with the German dictator. Even before World War II, Mussolini made an observation deck with large rectangular windows on the inside of the Vasari Corridor especially for the arrival of the guest of honor. It was decided to leave these windows, and they have survived to this day.

Author of the photo: Carlo Brogi. The picture was taken before 1925

The last of the Mohicans

Ponte Vecchio gives us an idea of \u200b\u200bwhat city crossings looked like in the late Middle Ages. The fact is that there was not so much free space in the city, and in the megalopolises of that time, bridges were often built up with houses or shops. For example, it was completely built up. More than a hundred different kinds of buildings fit on it. By the way, if you read the novel "Perfumer" or, then it was on the Changer Bridge that Baldini's shop was located, which collapsed into the Seine together with its owner. But at some point, the main bridges in Europe were cleared of buildings, but Ponte Vecchio survived and continues to amaze guests of Florence for hundreds of years.

Inside the bridge, the secret corridor of Vasari

Numerous tourists walking across the bridge do not always know that there is another path right over their heads to the other side of the river. This is a secret corridor. It was designed by the architect Vasari, after whom the secret passage got its name. Construction began in 1565 at the initiative of Duke Cosimo I, who belonged to the legendary Medici dynasty. The main task of the move is to connect the two banks of the river so that the duke can pass unnoticed from the Vecchio Palace to the Pitti residence. Why not just cross the bridge, you think? There are at least three reasons for this:

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For safety

When we talk about Florence and the Medici, we are talking a priori about the struggle for power. And this means that the life of the ruler may depend on the ability to pass unnoticed from one building to another.

For comfort

The bridge is a busy place of commerce. During Cosimo's time, it housed butcher shops. Since the sanitary situation was of little concern, the bridge exuded furious smells of rotten meat and waste. The presence of a separate corridor somewhat eased the situation. By the way, butchers were permanent inhabitants of the bridge until the 16th century, after which they were replaced by jewelry stores and the atmosphere became easier.

For espionage

Since there were always a lot of residents hanging around the butcher shops, who gave free rein to the language, the Duke of Tuscan used this for banal eavesdropping. According to rumors, the most careless talkers could be imprisoned the very next day.

Homeland of bankruptcy

An interesting story is connected with the bridge. There is a legend that it was here that the term "bankruptcy" originated. This is due to the fact that when the merchant on Ponte Vecchio finally went bankrupt, the city guards came and broke (rotto) his counter (banco). This procedure was called "bancorotto". After a person lost the counter, he could no longer engage in trade. In other words, he was declared bankrupt.

The famous French writer Maurice Druon describes the spirit of this place as follows:

During the Second World War, when the German troops left Florence, it was decided to blow up all the bridges of the city in order to delay the rapid advance of the enemy. Five of the six bridges were actually blown up, but the sixth, the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, was miraculously saved.

History and description of the famous bridge of Florence

The bridge has been connecting the banks of the Arno River since time immemorial, so its current name translates as "Old Bridge". Probably, the bridge was built here during the time of the Etruscans, and with the arrival of the Romans it was already rebuilt in a new wooden look. Since that time, the bridge has always stood in this place, and after the destruction it is diligently rebuilt anew.

The Arno River is distinguished by its rugged behavior. Throughout history, her hostile attitude has completely destroyed the bridge many times. One of the first documented evidence of such an event dates back to the distant 972. Then there is a series of restoration and destruction, until in 1332 a stone bridge was erected on this site.

By this time, the city has acquired several more bridges across the Arno. But the severe flood of 1333 once again amends the city plan. The water level in the central square of Florence at that time exceeded a meter, the city walls were damaged, more than 300 people died. Mars was considered the patron saint of the city, whose statue was installed at the entrance of Ponte Vecchio, but the flood did not spare her either. Later, a statue of St. John the Baptist was installed in its place, and since then, the elements have no longer disturbed the strength of the bridge.

After the flood, Ner di Fioravante and Taddeo Gaddi took on the challenge of sustaining the bridge. In 1335-1345, they carried out work on the construction and strengthening of a new bridge, which was no longer supposed to collapse under the onslaught of clearing water. Since that time, the bridge has stood to this day, becoming the hallmark of Florence.

The use of segmented arches made it the first bridge of its kind in all of Europe. The covered bridge consists of three arches that rise 4.4 meters. The central span reaches 30 meters, the lateral ones are slightly less - 27 meters each. It is noteworthy that the bridge is made wide - as much as 32 meters.

From the Middle Ages to the present day, there are merchants' shops on the bridge. Initially, there were butchers and tanners here, but a clever council decided to remove them from the symbol of Florence, replacing them with "noble" jewelers and other precious metal craftsmen. The statue of Benvenuto Cellini, the patron saint of Italian jewelers, is reminiscent of this.

Benvenuto Cellini

In 1565, the bridge was supplemented with a covered gallery connecting Palazzo Vecchio with Palazzo Pitti. The architect of the building was Vasari, therefore it is called the “Vasarino corridor”. The gallery above the merchants' shops offers excellent views of the Arno River and Florence.

Vasarino corridor

Another major flood occurred in 1966. All the shops were washed away, but the Ponte Vecchio bridge survived. A truly eternal bridge that is renowned for being popular with tourists visiting the glorious city of Florence.

History of the Ponte Vecchio bridge

The first bridge at the narrowest point of the Arno River, in the ford area, was built under the Romans, approximately in the 1st century BC. e. Work on the river bed shortly after World War II found a concrete foundation, laid at an angle to the banks to allow the bridge to withstand frequent devastating floods. Until 123, the width of the bridge increased to 3 m, because the Cassian road was laid through it, intended for communication between Rome and the northern provinces. Imperfect Roman architectural tricks did not save the bridge: in the VI-VII centuries. it was destroyed by the combined efforts of the elements and the crowds of barbarians sweeping across Italy. In the Middle Ages, the restored bridge was swept away by floods at least twice. The penultimate version was built in 1177 on oak beams left over from its predecessor. The stream of 1333, the most turbulent in the history of Arno, destroyed it too.

In 1345, the city authorities got tired of paying for regular renovations, and they commissioned an architect to design a stone bridge. Giorgio Vasari, artist and art historian, claims that this master was Taddeo Gaddi, modern scholars doubt this and attribute the authorship to Neri di Fioravanti. In any case, the new stone bridge, some time later called Vecchio, that is, "old", quickly became a bustling trading place. For sanitary reasons, inaccessible to our understanding, the butchers' shops were moved here so that they would not leave waste on the street near the palaces of the nobility, but dump them into the river. Soon, the traders found little portable tables, and the bridge on the sides was overgrown with buildings that were mounted on brackets above the water. This did not add to his beauty, but there was no end of visitors.

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The most smelly bridge of the Middle Ages has now become the most pretentious landmark in Florence. Such metamorphoses, I must say, do not happen often, so it is, alas, necessary to huddle among the masses of tourists and Africans who sell everything here. Although the best view of Ponte Vecchio, of course, opens from afar, from the embankment, or from Piazzale Michelangelo.

History paragraph

The fate of the place, whose aromas did not in any way whet the appetite, was not immediately with Ponte Vecchio. Initially, this oldest bridge in Florence performed the most common function - a crossing over the deep Arno River. Found in the times of the ancient Romans, however, in a wooden form, it was repeatedly destroyed by strong currents and rains, rebuilt anew and so on in a circle more than a dozen times. And only in the 15th century, when the authorities of Florence decided to move the butchers' shops away from the houses of the nobility and the administrative palaces, it acquired the fame of a place that smells bad. It is not surprising: at that time they did not know refrigeration units, and in the Italian heat, steamed veal and chicken brains deteriorated quickly, just like the waste left over from animals. All this stuff was thrown off in the Arno, so that the waters of the river carried them as far as possible outside the city. It didn't save much from aromas.

The most smelly bridge of the Middle Ages has now become the most pretentious landmark in Florence.

Due to the fact that there were a dime a dozen of butchers in Florence, and the bridge was not so long, the shopkeepers had to be sophisticated and build their shops in breadth: they still bulge, stick out over the bridge and hang above the water for as many as several meters. (We all saw this picture in the film "Perfumer".) It is not known exactly when the butcher shops changed to rich jewelry stores, but it is a fact that today it is not possible to buy a ring here for less than 200 EUR.

That is why nowadays the second name of the bridge is popular - "golden".

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What to see

It is possible that the Ponte Vecchio changed its meat business to jewelry Ponte Vecchio at a time when the Vasari Corridor was built over the bridge, named after the architect who created it. The function of the corridor was simple: so that Duke Cosimo I could walk slowly from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Pitti Palace.

Along the entire path on the bridge, there are small round windows, thanks to which, according to legend, the ruler overheard the chatter of the common people.

Vasari Corridor

Today this corridor is considered one of the best art galleries in the world, where about 700 originals of paintings from the 16-17 centuries are kept: masters from Rome and Naples, as well as a collection of self-portraits of famous artists of Italy and the world. In particular: self-portraits of Raphael, Vasari, Rubens, Velasquez, Kustodiev, Kiprensky.

You can visit the Vasari Corridor only during a group excursion, having previously booked it in the Uffizi or in one of the city's travel agencies. The groups are small, the guide broadcasts in English, the cost is around 90-100 EUR. The walk begins on the second floor of the Uffizi Gallery and ends in the Boboli Gardens. It is strictly forbidden to take photographs; for lascivious hands who want to touch everything, they can generally be expelled from the holy of holies - supervision in this place is very serious.

Arno is a river in central Italy. It originates on the southern slope of Mount Falterona in the Tuscan chain of the Apennine range at an altitude of 1385 meters above sea level. Its length is 241 km and it flows into the Tyrrhenian Sea near Pisa. Florence was founded by the Romans on the western bank of the Arno and the first bridge was built in the 1st century. BC e. The river gave life and destroyed it. The last catastrophic flood occurred on November 4, 1966, when the water rose to the middle of the second floors.

Now in the area of \u200b\u200bthe city, 9 bridges have been thrown across the Arno River, the king of which is the Old Bridge (ponte Vecchio). It is likely that the ancient Roman road of Cassius, along which the first Christians came to the city, passed exactly in this place. Now the bridge is the emblem of the city on a par with the dome of the cathedral. Over the centuries, it has become a real independent world. From time immemorial, in the shops on it, they sold meat and fish (conveniently throwing waste into the river). But in 1565, a covered corridor was built over the bridge to move Duke Cosimo Medici from the Old Palace to new possessions on the opposite bank. Of course, the butchers were overpowered to the New Market (where the bronze hog stands today), and jewelers were settled in their place. This is the only bridge not blown up by the retreating German Nazis in 1944.

But the Old Bridge is not the only one filled with secrets and memories. Its neighbors are no less interesting: to the north, the Alle Grazie (Forgiveness) bridge and to the south, the Santa Trinita (Holy Trinity) bridge. The Alle Grazie Bridge was formerly called the Rubiconte, after the medieval head of the Florentine government, who personally laid the foundation stone in 1237. Already since 1320, on each of the pylons of the bridge, on both sides, small wooden houses without doors and windows were erected, in which the Florentine hermit nuns Murate (i.e., immured) settled. And one day a miraculous image of the Mother of God appeared on one of the pylons, then called "the one who gives forgiveness" - grazie.

The Holy Trinity Bridge was founded a couple of decades after the Alle Grazie Bridge. And he often fell not only from floods, but also from the weight of the crowd during the frequent entertainment holidays held on the river. One of these crashes happened in 1557. After that, the Duke Cosimo Medici commissions the architect Bartalameo Ammanati to create the bridge that we can see today. Michelangelo contributed to the elegant design. The exquisite Aries head medallions decorate the bridge, two on each side, for a reason. Aries - the beginning of the zodiacal circle - a symbol of birth and knowledge.

And when you go up to the observation deck in the evening, you are enchanted by the brilliance of the Arno and the illuminated bridges.

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Houses of nuns on the bridge alla Grazie