Description
The Bridge of Sighs is one of the most photographed bridges in the world: an enclosed, covered passage in Istrian stone that spans the Rio di Palazzo and links the Doge's Palace to the New Prisons, a few steps from St Mark's Square.
The name comes from tradition: prisoners crossing it were said to sigh at the thought of seeing the outside world for the last time. Through a small window they could glimpse the lagoon, and in the distance the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.
The name, however, is much younger than the bridge. It appears in writing only in the late 1700s, and it was the Romantics who made it famous. In the days of the Serenissima it was simply a service passage.
It was built in the early 1600s on the orders of Doge Marino Grimani, whose coat of arms is carved on the bridge. The design is attributed to a Contin, nephew of Antonio da Ponte, the architect of the Rialto Bridge. From outside it is a single white, closed volume, with small windows and decoration that anticipates the Baroque taste.
Inside, the bridge hides a surprise: there are two corridors, parallel and separated by a wall. One took the detainees from the prisons to the magistrates' rooms, to be judged. The other took them to the visiting room. Both reached the staircase that went down to the Wells and up to the Leads.
The New Prisons had been built across the canal because the cells in the Doge's Palace were no longer enough. They were among the first buildings in Europe used only as a jail, with no governing functions, and they stayed in use until 1919.
Today you cross the bridge during the visit to the Doge's Palace: a narrow corridor between stone walls that gives you the measure of the place.
More recently the bridge has also gained a romantic fame, fed by a legend: couples who kiss in a gondola beneath it, at sunset, as the bells of St Mark's Campanile ring, are said to be destined for eternal love.
For its time the New Prisons were modern: larger cells and better facilities for the inmates. They were also used by the French and the Austrians, and stopped functioning only because they no longer met hygiene standards.
Don't miss
• The inner passage.
• The small windows.
• Doge Grimani's coat of arms.
Did you know?
• There are other “Bridges of Sighs” in Cambridge, Oxford and Lima.
• In New York there is a modern echo of it, between two buildings of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower.
The name comes from tradition: prisoners crossing it were said to sigh at the thought of seeing the outside world for the last time. Through a small window they could glimpse the lagoon, and in the distance the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.
The name, however, is much younger than the bridge. It appears in writing only in the late 1700s, and it was the Romantics who made it famous. In the days of the Serenissima it was simply a service passage.
It was built in the early 1600s on the orders of Doge Marino Grimani, whose coat of arms is carved on the bridge. The design is attributed to a Contin, nephew of Antonio da Ponte, the architect of the Rialto Bridge. From outside it is a single white, closed volume, with small windows and decoration that anticipates the Baroque taste.
Inside, the bridge hides a surprise: there are two corridors, parallel and separated by a wall. One took the detainees from the prisons to the magistrates' rooms, to be judged. The other took them to the visiting room. Both reached the staircase that went down to the Wells and up to the Leads.
The New Prisons had been built across the canal because the cells in the Doge's Palace were no longer enough. They were among the first buildings in Europe used only as a jail, with no governing functions, and they stayed in use until 1919.
Today you cross the bridge during the visit to the Doge's Palace: a narrow corridor between stone walls that gives you the measure of the place.
More recently the bridge has also gained a romantic fame, fed by a legend: couples who kiss in a gondola beneath it, at sunset, as the bells of St Mark's Campanile ring, are said to be destined for eternal love.
For its time the New Prisons were modern: larger cells and better facilities for the inmates. They were also used by the French and the Austrians, and stopped functioning only because they no longer met hygiene standards.
Don't miss
• The inner passage.
• The small windows.
• Doge Grimani's coat of arms.
Did you know?
• There are other “Bridges of Sighs” in Cambridge, Oxford and Lima.
• In New York there is a modern echo of it, between two buildings of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower.