The Bridges of Venice

A few of my favorites

Last January I declared that I was going to visit every open to the public church (There are less than a 100 open to the public churches in Venice, what seemed like a perfectly manageable number compared to Rome’s 900+. ) and I would cross every bridge. I managed one of those things. There are 435 bridges in Venice and it took me the entire 12 months. Most of these bridges (I really never, ever, go to San Polo) I crossed only one time but I probably crossed the 20-ish bridges between Piazza San Marco and my front door a few hundred times.

In the Castello there are 88 bridges, 75 in Cannaregio, 67 in Dorsoduro, in the central district of San Marco 44, 42 in Santa Croce and 16 in San Polo. Giudecca island has only 12 bridges.

Lot’s of online articles cited that there are two distinct parts to the city of Venice divided by the stretched out S of the grand canal. Sestieri de citra (north) and Sestieri de ultra (south.) I have never heard anyone ever mention these two zones.

The opposite of the essential guide to Venice.

You are probably familiar with the famous bridges that span the bends in the grand canal (there are 4¹) with the wooden Ponte dell'Accademia and white stone Ponte di Rialto being the superstars. What you may not know is that until the early 1900s the only bridge across the grand canal was at Rialto and there has been some kind of a bridge there since 1173. The Venice that we see today is a pretty modern invention. Before the Austrian occupation there were only about a 100 bridges and people moved around by boat. The Austrians were not skilled seafarers so they filled in canals and built roads and bridges to make it easier for them to move around. You can tell one of the original Venetian bridges from the Austrian construction by looking for three coat of arms on one side. That usually means the bridge is from before April 1797 when the Venetian Republic still existed.

These are a few of my favorite bridges in Venice. Some of them are pretty, some of them are historic and some have a great story. I left out all kinds of famous and amusingly named bridges. Do you have a favorite bridge here that I didn’t talk about? I would love to hear about it.

Ponte dei Pugni (Dorsoduro) There are two bridge of fists in Venice. The easiest one to find also has a great view of the vegetable boat and the Campo San Barnaba,and leads straight to great meatballs at Osteria Ponte ai Pugni. Look down and you will see 4 marble foot prints. A few hundred years ago rival neighborhood clans, the Nicolotti and the Castellani, would fight on these bridges, which did not have railings, until someone fell into the canal. The other one is Cannaregio near the campo Santa Fosca and Il Santo Bevitore.

Ponte del Paradiso (Ponte dell’Arsenale) I don’t always love the 40+ steep wooden steps of this bridge when I am almost home but I remind myself this is the view that Canaletto painted. Not the actual bridge I am actually climbing though, that was built in the early 1900s.

Ponte San Lorenzo In 1370 there was an annual procession with a piece of the True Cross from the Scuola Grande San Giovanni Evangelista to the church on San Pietro. On the way back while the procession was crossing this bridge the cross fell into the rio but it didn’t sink. A miracle! Bellini’s painting The Miracle of the Relic of the Holy Cross at the Bridge of San Lorenzo is not on view right now at the Academia but you can walk over the actual bridge whenever you like.

Ponte del L’Ovo This is the only spot to get a shot of the narrow rio di San Salvador with a gondola AND a view of the San Marco Campanile in the background.

Ponte Chiodo (Canareggio) One of the only bridges left in Venice that does not have any railings. This bridge used to be a favorite of mine but now it is always filled with people making TikTok’s.

I like the Ponte dei Preti along the Fondamenta dei Preti that leads to the Ponte del Paradiso (yes another one, but this one is named for the Paradiso family) for a couple of reasons. I love the rich coral colors and peeling paint and arched windows of the palace at one end and there is a piece of Roman spolia embedded in the wall of another palace. After years under scaffolding the gorgeous stone piece depicting the Madonna della Misericordia above is finally in view again.

Ponte dei Tre Archi which spans the Cannaregio canal is one of the largest bridges in Venice and the only one left with three arches. (Ponte San Lorenzo used to have three arches) There has been a bridge here since the at least the 1400s but the one we use today was rebuilt and restored in the late 1700s.

The metal flourishes that at first glance look like hearts on the the railings of the Ponte Borgoloco are a hidden inscription "Viva Vittorio Emanuele." This message of loyalty to the King of Italy was in defiance of the Austrian occupation.

Ponte della Scoazzera Before there are garbage boats there were Scoazzera. In the 15th and 16th century there were walled in squares scattered around the city that were used as a place to put garbage so that it could be collected and disposed instead of being thrown into water. The word that Venetians use for trash is scoasse. This bridge is just behind the Squero di San Trovaso, one of the few remaining places to get a gondola made and repaired.

Ponte Dei Squartai I do have a penchant for the ghoulish. A about five hundred years ago the sentence for the most serious crimes committed against the Venetian Republic was quartering² the condemned and displaying the pieces in 4 strategic places (Towards the direction of Mestre, Chioggia, Padua and the port of San Nicolo) where the most people would see them. This bridge made from bricks and stone that now connects San Polo and Dorsoduro had traffic going to and from Mestre on the mainland.

Ponte San Canciano

When you cross this bridge look for the iron anchors. Venetians believe that you must touch the two anchors for luck and to be grateful that be alive and not drawn and quartered and displayed on a bridge.

1. The stylish by slippery Ponte di Calatrava that links Piazzale Roma with the city is FINALLY being updated at an eye watering cost of 4,200 euro PER STEP!

2. Squartai = quartered