Bridge of Sighs

Architecture

After the gaols in the Doge's Palace itself (the pozzi) became too small, architect Gianantonio Rusconi was commissioned in 1580 to design a prison building to be erected northeast of the Doge's Palace across Rio di Palazzo. An extension was already decided in 1567 and completed in 1574. Rusconi died in the late 1580s, and Antonio da Ponte took over for the final south wing, designing the south façade to Riva degli Schiavoni and the lagoon, the only elaborate wall of a building otherwise completely bare of decoration. The fortress-like appearance was lent from the Mannerist Mint (the Zecca) on the other side of the Piazzetta di San Marco, built by Jacopo Sansovino about forty years earlier. Da Ponte had also been responsible for the reconstruction of the Doge's Palace after a fire in 1574 and had won the competition for the rebuilding of the Rialto Bridge in 1587; he died in 1597. To ensure secure passage from the interrogation rooms and the court to the prison cells da Ponte's nephew Antonio Contin, who was also his pupil, designed an enclosed bridge over the Rio di Palazzo, which separates the Palazzo Ducale from the Prigioni Nuove ("new prisons"). The interior was created with two gangways separated by a wall, so that the convicted prisoners would not meet those who were just going to be presented to the courts. The bridge was built soon after 1600.

Description

The eleven meter wide bridge is made of white Istrian limestone. The south and north facades are symmetrical, constructed over a single jolted arch, which is echoed by the roofline topped with volutes, in "an inappropriately frivolous way" seemingly heralding the Baroque. The molding of the bottom arch is decorated with a row of eleven sculpted heads (the central one a lion's head) and reclining figures in the spandrels. The enclosed gangway has two windows on each side, each with openwork in stone in the form of four eight-leaf flowers. Between them in the center the coat of arms of Doge Marino Grimani is displayed, above it the allegorical figure of justice.