Ponte Santa Trinita: The Bridge Fished Out of the River
Why is it significant?
Stand in the middle of the bridge and follow the curve of its three arches as they skim the water... so low and flat that they hardly look like arches at all.
Key Facts
| Place | Ponte Santa Trinita: The Bridge Fished Out of the River |
|---|---|
| Address | Ponte Santa Trinita, 50125 Firenze FI, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 43.76900, 11.25030 |
| Part of Walk | Florence Across the Arno: Oltrarno Artisans, Santo Spirito & San Frediano |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand in the middle of the bridge and follow the curve of its three arches as they skim the water... so low and flat that they hardly look like arches at all. Downstream the river runs towards the sea, upstream you have the most famous view in Florence, the shops of the Ponte Vecchio hanging over the Arno.
This is the Ponte Santa Trinita, built between 1567 and 1569 by Bartolomeo Ammannati for Cosimo de' Medici. Engineers still argue about the shape of those arches. They are not semicircles and not simple ellipses, and some historians believe Ammannati borrowed the idea from Michelangelo, who had died a few years earlier. Whoever drew them, the result is one of the most graceful bridges in Europe, as light as a gesture.
On the night of the 3rd to the 4th of August 1944, retreating German troops blew up every bridge in Florence except the Ponte Vecchio. This one fell into the river. After the war the city decided to rebuild it exactly as it had been, where it had been. Divers and workmen hauled the original blocks out of the Arno, and a stone quarry in the Boboli Gardens was reopened to cut the missing pieces. The bridge opened again in 1958.
Now look at the four statues at the corners, the Four Seasons, carved in 1608 for the wedding of Cosimo the Second. They went into the river with the bridge, and divers recovered them, all except one piece: the head of Spring, the young woman carved by Pietro Francavilla. An American pen company offered a reward. Nothing. Then, in 1961, workers dredging the riverbed found the head in the mud, and Spring was whole again.
Look closely and you can still see a faint difference in tone where the head joins the neck. Behind you is the city of the Medici. Ahead lies the Oltrarno, the other side of the river, the Florence of workshops and side streets. Walk straight off the bridge and into the wide street in front of you, Via Maggio.