The Bridge of Sighs, the Bridge of the Sorrowful...
The Bridge of Sighs The Bridge of Sighs crosses the canal that separates the Doge’s Palace from its prisons.
It was called the “Bridge of Sighs” because we imagined the complaints of the convicted who crossed it to go directly from the court to the prison or from their dungeon (from the torture room) to the court.
Closed like a safe
The cries of the invisible men who declared their innocence or called for help were thus muffled.Discretion guaranteed, well-kept secrets... and no risk of escape!
View of the Bridge Inside is a double corridor separated by a wall; the prisoners could pass each other without being able to see or speak to each other.
Organization, efficiency! In short, whoever passed this bridge no longer existed.
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It was the last image of freedom for those who would end their days in prison.
A moment of intense regret and sadness.
The History of the Bridge of Sighs
The Bridge of Sighs in Venice The Bridge of Sighs was built in 1602 to connect the east facade of the Doge’s Palace with the New Prison, erected between by Antonio Da Ponte, head of the department at the Venice Salt Office, who financed the construction.
It is in the Baroque style, designed by the architect A. Contino.
It is the only covered bridge in Venice.
And completely closed: the windows are narrow and allow a little light to pass through their stone fences, from where you can see the island of San Giorgio Maggiore and the Lagoon.
View of the Bridge The interior is much less attractive than the exterior: a sinister prison corridor separated in the middle by a wall.
On the one hand, the noble part of the Doge’s Palace: the Office of the Magistrate of Laws and the Criminal Quarantine Room.
On the other, the prison and the Police Headquarters.
This “double passageway” also communicated with the backstairs inside the Doge’s Palace that went from “The Wells”, the dark, humid dungeons in the basement, to “The Leads”, where people suffocated in cells under the roofs covered with large sheets of lead heated by the sun.
Casanova and The Bridge of Sighs
Inside the Bridge of Sighs Giacomo Casanova managed to escape from the Leads.
He tells the story in “Histoire de ma Vie”:
“The Leads, prisons designed to hold state criminals, are nothing but the granaries of the ducal palace, and it is from the large lead plates that cover this palace that these prisons take their name.
It can only be reached by passing through the palace gates, the prison building, or finally through the bridge I have already mentioned, called the Bridge of Sighs.”
Giacomo Casanova - “Histoire de ma Vie”
John Ruskin and the Bridge of Sighs
The Bridge of Sighs In 1845, Ruskin, disappointed by the modernity of Venetian public lighting, wrote in his journal:
“Towards the Rialto, at dusk, when I was under the arch of the bridge, what did I see all along the canal, all the way to Ca’ Foscari?... gas streetlights!
[...] And the biggest of them, the most conspicuous, under the Bridge of Sighs.
Imagine the serenades in the light of gas burners...”
John Ruskin
A Sarcophagus that takes off
Inside the Bridge of Sighs
“The Bridge of Sighs is a sarcophagus that flies off.
The tragedies of the doges are the games of glory and love.”
Andre Suares
“A low arch, a small Doric order with bosses, a circular pediment overloaded with a few windings, such is the Bridge of Sighs.
Strictly speaking, it is only a ten-metre-long passage leading from the Doge’s Palace to the prison and a very ordinary work by the architect da Ponte.
Certainly, Byron’s verses did more to illustrate the Bridge of Sighs than the talent of the architect who built it.”
Adolphe Lance - Excursion to Italy 1859
Inside the Bridge of Sighs
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Lord Byron, the Author of The Blunder about the Bridge of Sighs
The first verse of “Childe Harold” shows us Lord Byron feeling sublime by the Bridge of Sighs:“I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs;
At the palace and a prison on each hand:
I Saw from Out the Wave Her Structure Rise
As from the stroke of the enchanter’s wand.”
Lord Byron - Childe Harold
The Romantic Mistake
View of the Bridge This was the beginning of the historical and romantic error that would make the Bridge of Sighs, the Ponte dei Sospiri, the Bridge of Sighs, the bridge of sighing lovers!
Byron made a fatal mistake when you think of all the unfortunate people who sighed at it when they said goodbye to life.
The Bridge of Sighs: A covered tunnel
“It is made of white marble and has a severe but elegant architecture: it is a kind of covered tunnel, illuminated by two windows, square, on each side, lined with huge crossed iron bars.
View of the Bridge This passage is divided longitudinally in two by a solid masonry partition: there are, therefore, two corridors, one at the south, the other at the north.
Political prisoners went through the first, and the criminals went through the second to get from the courtroom to the dungeons intended for them.
You could also go there to get to the Dungeons of the “Leads” or the “Wells”.
This Bridge of Sighs was sadly famous: it even inspired such terror that gondoliers avoided crossing the Canal of the Orphans, or, if forced to pass, they rowed with all the strength of their arms to get away as quickly as possible.
View of the Bridge Moreover, and this did little to inspire righteous fear, the men of the Council of Ten closely watched the canal: often, they could not be seen, but their presence was always felt.
On the other hand, as the gondola glided across the silent waters of the canal, from the depths of the palace on the left and the depths of the prison on the right, there were dull human moans chilled with fear.”
J. Malgat - The Ancient Prisons of Venice - 1898
The Departure of the Condemned to Death
“A small door at the top of the water, placed under this Bridge of Sighs, suddenly opened.
Inside the Bridge of Sighs It was covered with a shroud.
The big boat carried him, and its masked rowers advanced, at the head of the Giudecca, toward Poveglia, towards this Orfano canal, whose deep waters swallowed the body of the condemned man with a rope around his neck...”
Ambroise Tardieu - Three Months in Venice 1884
Goodbye Venice
“It is a river of gold that, between the pink brick banks, the gondola of the Rio del Palazzo rises.
The single row clouds the green and red water.
At the crossroads, the man pushes the traditional “Aoi” to warn of his arrival, but silence awaits you under the Bridge of Sighs.
Inside the Bridge of Sighs For a moment, the thought goes to those who had just been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Grand Council and were making their way to the grave.
Through the rosettes in the side windows, they gazed at the city burning with the dark fires of beauty: Goodbye Venice, the law of men would be less cruel if we hadn’t known each other.”
André Fraigneau - Venice That I Love 1957
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An Impression of Dread
“However, the same impression follows us; the same fear accompanies us when we cross the Bridge of Sighs.
Inside the Bridge of Sighs It was not the expectation of happiness that caused it to give it this name; it was not hope that made so many hearts beat, no, but the horrors of torture and the despair of death!
This bridge, wholly closed, covered, dark, thrown at the height of a third floor, can be compared to a sarcophagus suspended between two banks.”
Noémie Faouëdic du Dondel - Memories 1875
A Link Between Joy and Pain
“Four steps away from what I was admiring, I crossed the halls of the Council of Ten, then through a massive door I entered the Bridge of Sighs, a link between palace and prison: joy and pain.”
Felix Rousseaux - Luiggia 1871
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