Ponte Rotto
Title
Subject
Description
This bridge was built as Pons Aemelius in 179 B.C. As early as the 6th century, during the papacy of Gregory the Great, it formed a vital connection between the two most populated areas of Rome: Trastevere and the area between the east bank and the foot of the Capitoline. Central in the Early Medieval city, it began colloquially to be called the Pons Maior. In 1231, a flood collapsed the bridge, and as with many floods, the fallout was attributed to divine wrath, in this case a punishment for expelling Gregory the IX.
After this collapse, the bridge—now called Ponte Santa Maria after its proximity to Santa Maria in Cosmedin—joined its brethren along the Tiber in an ongoing cycle of repair. By nature, bridges impede water flow, and the current of the river wears away at piers, so taxes were constantly being levied to repair one bridge or another. In 1557, the bridge fell to a flood again, and this time the flood also took out the Ponte Sisto, built in 1475, and the Ponte Fabricius up the river.
As the climate changed, floods grew more common in the 16th century, stalling repairs—it took at least a decade to repair the Ponte Sisto after the flood in 1557 and 16 years to repair this bridge, putting serious stress on the bridges to Tiber Island which bore the brunt of the mercantile traffic during that time. The delays in repair stemmed partly from arguments about how to rebuild the two fallen arches, and the end result of the repair was insufficiently stable to save it from the flood in 1598 that swept away half the bridge.
The broken bridge, now called the Ponte Rotto, remained a fixture of the Roman city, its three remaining arches used as a fishing pier. A painting by de Heusch from the 17th century shows the lingering bridge and the river life around it. In the 19th century, two arches were demolished during the building of the embankments and the enlargement of the river bed, and the one arch in the modern photo is all that remains today.
Creator
Source
Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Hong Kong: Princeton University Press.
Rinne, Katherine Wentworth. The Waters of Rome: Aqueducts, Fountains, and the Birth of the Baroque City. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.
Identifier
Spatial Coverage
Description
This bridge was built as Pons Aemelius in 179 B.C. As early as the 6th century, during the papacy of Gregory the Great, it formed a vital connection between the two most populated areas of Rome: Trastevere and the area between the east bank and the foot of the Capitoline. Central in the Early Medieval city, it began colloquially to be called the Pons Maior. In 1231, a flood collapsed the bridge, and as with many floods, the fallout was attributed to divine wrath, in this case a punishment for expelling Gregory the IX.
After this collapse, the bridge—now called Ponte Santa Maria after its proximity to Santa Maria in Cosmedin—joined its brethren along the Tiber in an ongoing cycle of repair. By nature, bridges impede water flow, and the current of the river wears away at piers, so taxes were constantly being levied to repair one bridge or another. In 1557, the bridge fell to a flood again, and this time the flood also took out the Ponte Sisto, built in 1475, and the Ponte Fabricius up the river.
As the climate changed, floods grew more common in the 16th century, stalling repairs—it took at least a decade to repair the Ponte Sisto after the flood in 1557 and 16 years to repair this bridge, putting serious stress on the bridges to Tiber Island which bore the brunt of the mercantile traffic during that time. The delays in repair stemmed partly from arguments about how to rebuild the two fallen arches, and the end result of the repair was insufficiently stable to save it from the flood in 1598 that swept away half the bridge.
The broken bridge, now called the Ponte Rotto, remained a fixture of the Roman city, its three remaining arches used as a fishing pier. A painting by de Heusch from the 17th century shows the lingering bridge and the river life around it. In the 19th century, two arches were demolished during the building of the embankments and the enlargement of the river bed, and the one arch in the modern photo is all that remains today.
Creator
Bard Swallow (2018)Coverage
1200sSource
Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Hong Kong: Princeton University Press.
Rinne, Katherine Wentworth. The Waters of Rome: Aqueducts, Fountains, and the Birth of the Baroque City. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.