Ponte dei Pugni & Campo San Barnaba
Why is it significant?
Stand at the top of this little bridge and look down at your feet. Set into the stone near each corner are white marble footprints, four of them, two on each side. They are not decoration. They mark where the fighters stood before a battle. Ponte dei Pugni means the bridge of fists.
Key Facts
| Place | Ponte dei Pugni & Campo San Barnaba |
|---|---|
| Address | Ponte dei Pugni, Rio di San Barnaba, Dorsoduro, 30123 Venezia VE, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 45.43320, 12.32440 |
| Part of Walk | Art on the Water: Dorsoduro, the Accademia and the Zattere in Venice |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand at the top of this little bridge and look down at your feet. Set into the stone near each corner are white marble footprints, four of them, two on each side. They are not decoration. They mark where the fighters stood before a battle.
Ponte dei Pugni means the bridge of fists. For centuries Venice was split into two great factions, the Castellani from the eastern part of the city and the Nicolotti from the west, and they settled their rivalry with organised battles on bridges like this one. Back then there were no parapets. The aim was to punch, shove and throw the other side into the canal, while crowds packed the fondamente, the windows and the roofs to cheer.
The fights were a sport, a festival and a pressure valve, and the Republic tolerated them for a long time, even staging them for visiting princes. But they could turn vicious: sticks came out, then knives, and people died. In 1705, after one battle turned especially bloody, the government banned the bridge fights for good.
Two films have left their mark on Campo San Barnaba, just behind you. In Summertime, in 1955, Katharine Hepburn stepped backwards into the canal here while taking a photograph, and she later said the dip left her with an eye infection that troubled her for the rest of her life. And in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the church of San Barnaba became a library with a knight's tomb hidden beneath its floor.
Below the bridge, a barge moored at the fondamenta has long sold fruit and vegetables, one of the last shops floating on the water. Buy a peach if you like. Then walk back past the church of San Barnaba and follow the fondamenta along the canal towards the Grand Canal, where a huge white palace waits for the final stop.