Ponte Vecchio is a historic bridge that spans the Arno River in
Florence. The bridge connects via Por Santa Maria (lungarno degli
Acciaiuoli and lungarno degli Archibusieri) to via de' Guicciardini
(borgo San Jacopo and via de' Bardi).
The denomination was
given to what was the oldest Florentine bridge at the time the
Carraia bridge was built, then called "ponte Nuovo" in contrast to
the pons Vetus. In addition to its historical value, the bridge over
time has played a central role in the city road system, starting
from when an older bridge in this point (or nearby) connected the
Roman Florentia with the Via Cassia Nuova wanted by the emperor
Hadrian in 123 AD
In contemporary times, despite being closed
to vehicular traffic, the bridge is crossed by a considerable
pedestrian flow generated both by the notoriety of the place itself
and by the fact that it connects places of great tourist interest on
the two banks of the river: piazza del Duomo, piazza della Signoria
on one side with the area of Palazzo Pitti and Santo Spirito in the
Oltrarno.
The bridge appears in the list drawn up in 1901 by
the Directorate General of Antiquities and Fine Arts, as a
monumental building to be considered a national artistic heritage.
This is the oldest bridge in the city, erected at the point where the banks of the Arno are closest, where in ancient times there was a ford.
The first crossing over the Arno must have been slightly upstream of
today's bridge, on the continuation of the cardo maximo of the current
via Roma-via Calimala, or in the current Piazza del Pesce. It must have
dated back to shortly after the foundation of the city, i.e. in the
middle of the 1st century BC, and had an oblique course with respect to
the current, to better support the thrust of the floods. Surveys carried
out in the river bed at the end of the 1950s have in fact found two
large concrete foundations which can in all probability be referred to
the first Roman bridge.
This walkway had to be consolidated and
widened around 123, when Hadrian promoted the construction of the via
Cassia Nuova, which crossed the city and which probably corresponded, on
the south bank, to the via de' Bardi and via di San Niccolò. The bridge
perhaps already had masonry pillars, while the truss must have been, as
usual, in wood. The first Roman bridge had to be destroyed towards the
6th-7th century, due to neglect and the wars of the barbaric era, as
well as probable damage caused by floods.
It is difficult to
hypothesize how many early medieval bridges were overwhelmed by the
frequent flooding of the Arno and how many were rebuilt. Among the
scarce documentary traces there is one from 972 in which the bishop
Sichelmo gave Father Domenico d'Orso the church of Santa Felicita "not
far from the head of the bridge of the Arno river". Giovanni Villani
spoke of a bridge built under Charlemagne, probably in wood, and it is
perhaps in the 9th or 10th century that the crossing had its current
position.
Surely a bridge in its current position was rebuilt after a collapse
in 1177, as reported by Giovanni Villani and Marchionne di Coppo
Stefani, linked to the first flood of the Arno river of which we have
certain information (occurred on 28 October or, according to a later
source, on November 4). On that occasion the butt of the statue known as
Mars, which Dante also mentions (Hell XIII, 144), was swept away and
fished out, more likely than a barbarian king, perhaps Theodoric or
Totila, since Villani remembers it as "equestrian".
Twentieth-century studies on the remains in the heads and pylons show
that it rested on more ancient remains, such as oak beams from the
second half of the tenth century, and that it had five arches.
Damaged by floods in the winter of 1200 and in the summer of 1250, it
was also affected by fires in 1222, 1322 and 1331, until it was swept
away by the flood of 4 November 1333, one of the most violent in history
city. It was then that the statue of Mars, considered a kind of city
palladium, was lost forever.
The subsequent reconstruction began around 1339 - on a project that
variously tends to be attributed either to Taddeo Gaddi (according to
the testimony of Giorgio Vasari), or to Neri di Fioravante (by virtue of
the fact that he was Master Builder of the Signoria in those years), or
to Fra' Domenico da Campi (who had recently rebuilt the Carraia bridge)
- to be completed in 1345, as attested by two tombstones placed on that
occasion and still existing.
The new bridge, with three arches,
was originally characterized by the presence of four linear and
crenellated buildings placed at the four ends, with a central square:
the crenellations defined as many balconies which were accessed from
four doors placed on the open space (still existing). and from two other
gates (now disappeared) located at the ends towards Por Santa Maria; on
the Oltrarno side, the buildings of the bridge adjoined the via de'
Bardi side with the houses and the Mannelli tower, on the Borgo San
Jacopo side with the buildings later known as the Commenda del Santo
Sepolcro.
The arches under the galleries (whose profile is still
visible in some internal sections), were then filled with small and
varied buildings on both sides, gradually replacing temporary structures
in wood and other materials used by small market vendors. These
buildings, already present in a different form in the fourteenth
century, were destined in 1442 by the city administration for the use of
greengrocers' and butchers' shops, due to the possibility of dispersing
waste into the river. In 1495 forty-eight shops were sold by the
Municipality to private individuals and to lay and religious bodies who,
strengthened by their rights, enlarged them mostly with projections on
the side of the river, determining a decisive alteration of the original
design of the bridge.
In 1565 the architect Giorgio Vasari built the "Vasari corridor" for
Cosimo I, with the aim of putting the political and administrative
center in Palazzo Vecchio in communication with the private residence of
the Medici, Palazzo Pitti. The elevated corridor, about 760 meters long
and built in just five months, caused a further element of breaking the
unitary design of the fronts, passing on the east side of the bridge
above the shops.
The butchers' shops were then occupied by
goldsmiths and jewelers by order of Ferdinand I with a decree dated 27
September 1594, to avoid a trade that was not very noble and with
unpleasant smells under the windows of the suspended corridor.
The use of the characteristic protruding displays on the roadway,
called "madielle", dates back to the eighteenth century, while some
reconfiguration interventions of the shop displays date back to the
nineteenth century, as well as an overall project by the architect
Giuseppe Martelli to transform the internal street into a gallery cover
and regularize the front with the ports (1856-1857, never implemented).
This project, which took up a proposal already formulated in 1841 by
the municipal engineer Giuseppe Casini, consisted in a hypothesis of
transformation of the internal street into a gallery closed by two glass
and iron flaps, with the shops rigorously aligned and framed by
Corinthian pilasters, all surmounted by a continuous terrace supported
by corbels decorated with acanthus leaves. The covered passage,
introduced by the loggia of the Vasari corridor present along the
Lungarno degli Archibusieri, would then have to continue along via
Guicciardini with another portico, up to Palazzo Pitti and then to the
Physics Museum. Although the project had received royal approval in 1856
and had been made operational in 1857, then requested again by the
architect Martelli in 1862, it was never implemented except in the
fragment of the exhibition of the workshop at 16 red, as an inscription
therein recalls present, to be read as a complete serial element and to
be repeated - according to the wishes of the architect - along the
entire length of the bridge.
The project to demolish the houses,
perceived essentially as abusive 'superdifications', did not even
succeed, a bit as had been done since 1883 in the nearby Lungarno degli
Archibusieri.
In 1938 Mussolini had panoramic windows built in the Vasari corridor
in the center of the bridge, on the occasion of Adolf Hitler's official
visit (May of that year) to tighten the Axis between Italy and Germany.
Following the retreat of German troops during the Italian campaign,
this was the only bridge in Florence that was not blown up by the
Germans in 1944 during the Second World War. The decision not to make it
collapse has been attributed by historiography to the German hierarchies
(on Hitler's decision with the intercession of the German consul Gerhard
Wolf) who, even without blowing up the bridge, had in any case made it
unusable by damaging the bank and the surrounding houses , technique
already used in Rome and Paris. In 2016, following the story of a
witness, an alternative reconstruction spread according to which some
goldsmiths sabotaged the devices by cutting their wires: on the night
between 3 and 4 August 1944, Burgassi (called by all Burgasso) aide to
the goldsmiths left free to move because the Germans thought he didn't
understand anything, old and physically impaired by polio but with a
clear mind, he assisted in the laying of mines. Having seen everything,
he would have known where the mine connections were and pointed to them
to defuse them. Both reconstructions do not have incontrovertible
sources, although the first is the most accredited historiographically,
also because it would not have made sense to undermine the surrounding
streets so heavily, which had not happened for any other bridge over the
Arno.
The bridge was therefore spared to the detriment of large
neighboring areas: via Por Santa Maria and the Lungarno Acciaiuoli to
the north, Borgo San Jacopo, via Guicciardini and the first stretch of
via de' Bardi to the south were practically razed to the ground. As
immortalized in an episode of Roberto Rossellini's film Paisà, the
surviving passage on the Vasari corridor, at the end of the Second World
War, was practically the only north-south crossing point in the city.
After the Second World War, the Provveditorato alle Opere Pubbliche
carried out important consolidation works on the whole structure,
preceded by studies and checks already commissioned in 1949 to a
commission made up of the leading experts of the moment (engineers Luigi
Sabatini, Giulio Krall and Sisto Mastrodicasa). and followed by the
opening of the construction site in 1960, conducted with the external
consultancy of Professor Letterio F. Donato.
During the flood of
November 4, 1966, the bridge was damaged again and immediately
afterwards involved in further restoration works (1967-1968) followed by
a construction site for the consolidation of the structure with
particular reference to the pylons and the stalls (1978-1979).
While undergoing significant transformations in relation to the
individual buildings, the bridge has substantially maintained its
medieval and picturesque image, with the small and varied buildings that
mark it on both sides, surmounted on the upstream side by the Vasari
corridor, forming on the water a real city street.
The Ponte Vecchio is made up of three large lowered arch crossings;
was an important architectural innovation, because for the first time in
the West the Roman model was surpassed, which provided for the almost
exclusive use of round arches (or semicircular arches) and which, in the
case of a very long bridge, required a large number of arches, thus
creating potential dangers in the event of floods (due to the easy
obstruction of narrow passes) or a very steep slope, an equally
undesirable solution (typical cases: the Maddalena bridge, near Borgo a
Mozzano, or the Fabricio bridge, in Rome) . The ratio between the span
of the arch and its height is 6.5 to 1, thus exceeding the ratio of 5.3
to 1 present in the Roman bridge of Limira, a bridge built with lowered
arches and which made it the ancient bridge with arches lowest segmental
in history up to the construction of the Ponte Vecchio. The Florentine
example led the way: the Rialto bridge in Venice and many others were
built in the 16th century with a similar lowered arch.
Another
typical feature is the passage flanked by two rows of artisan shops,
created in ancient porticoes which have since been closed, which have
made it famous, as if it were the continuation of the road. The shops of
Ponte Vecchio all overlook the central passage, each with a single
window closed by thick wooden doors, and often have a back shop built
overhanging the river and supported by corbels (or "sporti").
At
the center of the bridge the shops are interrupted to open up to two
views of the river, upstream thanks to the loggia on which the Vasari
corridor rests, downstream via an open space that houses the bronze and
marble monument to the sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini by
Raffaello Romanelli (1900) with base by Egisto Orlandini.
At the
four corners of the bridge there were as many towers that controlled
access to it: of these only the Mannelli tower remains, while the
Rossi-Cerchi tower and the Consorti tower were rebuilt after the
explosions of 1944.
The roadway is paved.
The buildings on the bridge, especially the commercial ones, can be
divided into four blocks, two on each side, interrupted by the central
views of the Arno. It also has access from the bridge, at no. 2, the
Palazzo della Commenda del Santo Sepolcro, and a commercial
establishment inside the Mannelli tower.
First block
The first
block is on the west side and runs from north to south, from Lungarno
Acciaiuoli to the Cellini monument.
2r-4r-8r Vaggi and Gherardi
shop
This workshop defines the foot of Ponte Vecchio towards Por
Santa Maria, from the side of the Lungarno degli Acciaiuoli: the
elevation that looks at the street inside the bridge develops in
correspondence with the first three ancient arches, with a line of eaves
that grows progressively until it reaches the four floors on the side
that surrounds the riverside, to then decrease again. Here the façade is
enriched by a balcony with stone corbels of seventeenth-century design,
a period to which the definition of the current building presumably can
be traced back, in any case built starting from the original
fourteenth-century factory which developed compactly from here to the
open space where it is today the bust of Benvenuto Cellini. Of this, in
addition to the arches mentioned above, the segmental arch that looks
towards Por Santa Maria bears memory, as well as the large portion with
exposed stones that develops at the corner, which came to light and
recovered in 1929. Further relics of ancient history are the two shields
placed at the corner and hung on tracks (abraded and illegible), as well
as the insignia of the Officers of the Tower (consisting of a tower), to
identify the judiciary which supervised the services and public
buildings. On the other hand, it is doubtful whether to recognize in the
door on this side the access that once allowed to reach the balcony with
battlements located on the ancient building, symmetrical to the one that
opened onto the open space in the center of the bridge. As regards the
most recent conservation events, these are mostly attributable to the
period of the G. Del Bono property, who took charge of bringing to light
the ancient traces, then of restoring the building in 1945. As regards
the instability of this portion caused by the flood of 1966,
consolidation and restoration interventions are reported in 1997-1998.
Currently the premises on the ground are occupied by the shops Vaggi and
Gherardi (numbers 2 and 4 red) and Ghilardi (number 8 red). The building
has been subject to architectural restrictions since 1934
10r-12r-14r Workshops of the Frilli goldsmith
In this case we are
dealing with three shops (fourth, fifth and sixth on the right side
coming from Por Santa Maria) originally separate but in the nineteenth
century merged into a single property (Olinto Frilli) which, in 1853,
intervened to modernize the façade and on this occasion unify it. By
eliminating the tiles, the front was rectified, divided into three parts
by pilasters of evident classical inspiration, in ways decidedly similar
to those which, with greater richness of ornamentation, would have been
the basis of the project by Giuseppe Martelli which materialized in the
exhibition of the nearby workshop of the goldsmith Ricci (at number 16
red). Currently the rooms, divided again, house the R. Fallaci (10 red),
The Golden River (12 red) and Ponte Vecchio (14 red) shops.
16r
Workshop formerly of the goldsmith Ricci
This portion faces the
street with the large display of a goldsmith's shop, delimited by two
semi-pillars with Corinthian capitals and a high architrave on which is
the inscription: "First goldsmith's shop reorganized in 1857 based on
the design imposed by the Town Hall". And again, in reference to a
central relief in terracotta with the effigy of Benvenuto Cellini which
no longer exists since the Second World War: "This effigy may remind you
of the highest glories of art and inflame souls to generous emulation".
Below: "Gius. Martelli Architect". The exhibition is surmounted by a
balcony on sturdy corbels, with a beautiful cast iron railing, onto
which opens a door stamped with a shield referable to the Ricci family
of the Santa Maria Novella district (in green, with a red band,
surmounted by a gold eight-pointed star and accompanied at the tip by
three natural loops, 1.2). As documented by the inscriptions, the
exhibition was born from the adhesion of the owner of the workshop to
the project drawn up by the architect of the Regie Fabbriche Giuseppe
Martelli between 1856 and 1857 on commission from the Municipality of
Florence and the Grand Ducal government, aimed at regularizing and
giving new decorum to the existing "superdifications" on the bridge. The
environment of the sixteenth-century forge, discovered and restored in
1983, is still preserved in the building. Again as evidence of ancient
history, at the height of the balcony railing, the presence of the coat
of arms of the Torre Officers can be seen. The fund is currently
occupied by the Audemars Piguet Boutique store.
18r Workshop of
the Servants of Mary
The building has not been raised beyond the
ancient eaves line, except for the pitched roof that replaced the
fourteenth-century gallery. Of the ancient ownership of the workshop (to
document how private individuals coexisted here with properties of
religious and civil institutions) documents the coat of arms placed on
the arch that surmounts the madiella, with the S proper of the Serviti
(convent of the Santissima Annunziata) accompanied by the number 20 (or
21) in Roman characters, referring to the position of the property in
the possession register. From archival research conducted by Paola
Ircani Menichini it is in fact possible to trace a donation to the
convent made in 1560 by a butcher who owns the building, as well as to
establish 1808 as the year in which the shop (at the time occupied by
goldsmiths Gabriello Romanelli and a certain Cornelisen) was
expropriated following the Napoleonic suppressions.
20r Workshop
The building taken into consideration, like the previous one, has not
been raised. The shop presents an exhibition reconfigured in the 19th
century, to the detriment of the previous madiella. Currently the room
is occupied by the S. Vaggi shop.
22r Workshop
Among the shops
on the bridge, this is one of those which, resting on one of the piers,
has developed in depth allowing the creation of an additional space
beyond that of the current sale.
24r Shop
This building has
not been raised either and is occupied by The Goldsmith (formerly
Rajola) shop.
26r Workshop of the Sundial
The shop already
occupies the spaces of the last shop of the fourteenth-century factory
that marked this stretch of the bridge from the right side coming from
Por Santa Maria, from the riverside to the widening where the bust of
Benvenuto Cellini is currently located. Its head position leads to the
reading of two elevations, which appears ideal for imagining the heights
of the old building, including the line where the merlons of the balcony
must once have been, given the large surfaces with large stone ashlars
that also characterize almost entirely the front on the square. On this
side, in particular, the current that presumably marked the walking
surface of the gallery (reachable from the staircase that developed from
the door now transformed into a second access and shop window) is
highlighted, therefore the later elevation with pitched roof favor of
the shop spaces. We also appreciate a plaque with an inscription in
Gothic characters and, in the upper centre, the insignia of the Tower
Officers who were responsible for the maintenance of the bridge, with a
shield next to it hung by a track, almost completely abraded, but in
which you can still glimpse the keys of St. Peter, a symbol of fidelity
to the papacy of the Guelph party or, more generally, the Florentine
Church, also present in other medieval buildings in the city. On the
axis of this, on the side of the road inside the bridge, is a shield in
all similar equally illegible, but as documented by the photos of the
early twentieth century, dedicated to the house of Anjou, protectors of
Florence. At the height of the roof, in the corner, there is a sundial
of the canonical hour type (that is, with a subdivision of the daytime
arc only into 12 parts) which, although it is called "not very ancient"
by the tourist signs present on site, appears of seventeenth-century
design, just as the seventeenth-century spirit seems to us the strange
idea of sculpting a lizard on the stem of the same, motionless on the
stone struck by the sun (its function is actually to show us the south)
as we observe in reality. As for the inscription, this appears
transcribed in Francesco Bigazzi's repertoire, a very important
testimony that documents the destruction of the previous bridge due to a
"water flood" in 1333 and the reconstruction of the current bridge in
1345.
The second block is on the east side and runs from north to south,
from the Lungarno degli Archibusieri/Piazza del Pesce to the open space
under the Vasari corridor.
1r-3r Shops
The first two shops of
the bridge on the left coming from Por Santa Maria (corresponding to two
arches of the fourteenth-century building) are located in an area
profoundly transformed by the grafting onto this corner of the
sixteenth-century Vasari corridor and by the nineteenth-century
demolition of the other shops that had came to develop in continuity
with these on the Lungarno degli Archibusieri side, so that no testimony
suggests the character that this headboard must have once had. However,
on the side of the corridor there remains a large wall in stone ashlars
relating to the construction of the bridge, with a current
(reconstructed) presumably indicating the walking surface of the ancient
gallery. Currently the characterizing element that introduces to the
shops is the wrought iron and glass sign that advertises the T. Ristori
shop, restored in 1994 but on the basis of documentation from the early
twentieth century, which documents it as being made at the same time as
the beautiful ironwork of the madiella that instead they are kept in the
original, signed by the G. Smorti workshop and dated 1914.
5r-7r-9r Settepassi goldsmith's workshops
The current shop was opened
in 1850 by Leopoldo Settepassi to occupy three of the old shops that
existed here, connected to each other with the demolition of the
dividing walls. In 1939-1940 there was a reconfiguration of the façade
based on a project by Nello Baroni (approved by the Superintendency then
contested by the same for some variants proposed during construction and
finally arrived at a version that took into account the chromatic
relationship with the surrounding tiles ) accompanied by a new furniture
designed by Maurizio Tempestini. "The intervention carried out by Baroni
and Tempestini was part of a more general programme, promoted by the
E.R.E. Ente Rinnovamento Lavoratori, for the improvement of the city's
aesthetics through the renovation of the commercial establishments,
according to principles which tended to restore an image of 'ancient'
Florence". Further changes to the façade are documented in 1951, which
in any case still seems to be essentially attributable to the
construction site of the 1930s, in which the intention was evidently to
re-propose in a modern key the scanning and design already experimented
by the shop in front of the red numbers 10, 12 and 14.
11r
Workshop
The shop with its display (with the usual madiella shape)
was affected by restoration and conservative rehabilitation works in
1996.
13r Workshop
In this case, the presence of a shield with
an empty field is noted on the portion of ancient masonry between the
madiella and the shed, accompanied by a small stone with the number 73
in Roman characters, to indicate the position of the property in the
register of possessions of that which presumably was a religious
institution. The property underwent restoration and conservative
restoration work in 1996 which, however, does not seem to have affected
the madiella, to be dated between the second half of the 19th century
and the beginning of the following century.
15r Workshop
While
respecting the ancient volumes, the madiella (as well as obviously the
furnishings of the internal environment) are the result of a recent
reconstruction.
17r-19r Shops
The two shops taken into
consideration have similar bricks and characterized - compared to what
is documented by the others that precede and follow - by wooden carvings
with friezes and shelves in eighteenth-century style. Although of
relatively recent manufacture (first decades of the twentieth century),
the type documents a fashion that affected various exhibitions of the
bridge during the nineteenth century (as documented by some photographs
and advertisements of the period), to be interpreted in the context of a
taste in which neo-rococo was recognized as having the ability to refer
by analogy to the concepts of luxury and refinement.
21r-23r
Shops
These are the last two shops that closed the compact
crenellated building that once marked the first stretch of the bridge on
the left side coming from Por Santa Maria, before the opening of the
central open space. On the side facing the square there are various
ancient testimonies, starting from the masonry with large stone ashlars:
at the top is the sign of the Torre Officers, on the left a marble
plaque with a winged figure and an inscription in Gothic letters recalls
the destruction of the bridge in 1333 and its renewal in 1345, the
latter transcribed in the repertoire of Francesco Bigazzi. "The child,
who can be seen at the beginning of the first inscription, is believed
by many to be a little idol, to whom the last verse of the inscription
itself refers". The door, outlined by a pointed arch, is one of the six
that originally allowed access to the crenellated galleries. As for the
rooms, these are currently occupied by the Fratelli Piccini shop.
The third block is on the west side and runs from north to south,
from the Cellini monument to Borgo San Jacopo.
30r-32r Workshop
of Santa Maria Novella
The shop is located at the head of the old
factory which from the open space in the center of the bridge descended
on the right side towards via Guicciardini. This position allows us to
read a still sufficiently preserved passage of the original building, at
least as regards the side facing the square. Here is still the door that
once allowed to reach the crenellated gallery and still, in
correspondence with the corner, two large shields hung with a track
(from the field illegible due to the abrasion of the relief), in the
center at the top the insignia of the Officers di Torre who were
entrusted with the care of the bridge. At the cantata two illegible
shields, which however must have composed on the other corners the
series of insignia of the Republic (the eagle of the Guelph side, the
cross of the People, the lily of the Municipality, the inscription
Libertas dei Priori di Libertà). Closely linked to the ancient workshop
that insisted here is instead the shield placed above the door marked by
the red number 30, typical of the Dominican order (truncated in black
and silver echelon), accompanied by the letters S.M.N. which indicate
how once the fund was owned by the convent of Santa Maria Novella. The
compartment is occupied (and has been for a long time) by the E. Fantoni
store.
34r Workshop
It is certainly the most 'picturesque'
shop in this stretch, even if its charm was obtained with a significant
alteration of the medieval structure. In fact, due to the width of the
ancient arch and the related shop, a raised elevation was created (also
affecting the other two neighboring shops) which, in addition to
enlarging the otherwise very small windows, allowed the construction of
two superimposed balconies (the second set back). and a terraced 'tower'
which dominates the whole and which also extends onto the next body of
the shop at number 36 red. To refine the whole are the flowers that
embellish the balconies. The intervention is indicated by the owners as
dated 1888 and in any case it is certainly to be interpreted in the
context of romantic taste.
36r Workshop
The shop presents a
elevation in line with that already observed for the adjacent building
marked by the red number 34, including the presence of a portion of the
terraced 'tower', to create a picturesque glimpse with particularly
articulated volumes.
38r Workshop
The building has a modest
elevation compared to the line of the ancient fourteenth-century
building, essentially to allow the creation of that already documented
pitched roof as defined in the fifteenth century to replace the
terracing of the previous century.
40r Workshop
This workshop
also has a modest elevation similar to the previous one.
42r
Workshop
The property has no elevations. We note the presence, above
the canopy of the shop, on the ancient masonry that once defined the
balcony of the fourteenth-century building, of a tower carved in stone,
the sign of the Tower Officers who were entrusted with the care of the
bridge as it was immovable publicly owned.
44r-46r Shops
The
buildings do not have elevations compared to the line of the ancient
fourteenth-century building, except for the presence of that already
documented pitched roof as defined in the fifteenth century to replace
the terracing of the previous century. The two shops (formerly Melli
Antichità) present two exhibitions which, replacing the previous
madielles, propose an advancement of the prospectus for the entire
height of the room, according to a typology proposed for other shops on
the bridge during the nineteenth-century interventions. Moreover, the
same design of the fronts is also of nineteenth-century taste, which
with some variations is repeated for both exercises, characterized by
the presence of smooth pilasters framing the shop window and the
entrance. The workshop marked with the red number 44 is more ornate,
with decorations in the lateral mirrors of the tympanum.
48r
Workshop
This property has no elevations. The shop (in continuity
with the two that precede it) presents an exhibition which, replacing
the previous madiella, determines an advancement of the prospectus, but
it is nevertheless a wooden structure, painted with imitation stone,
which in any case fully harmonizes with the succession of fronts.
50r Workshop
There are no elevations. It can presumably be
identified as the last workshop, on this side, of the original
fourteenth-century series, given that the room that follows is of
different dimensions and such as to assume a different use in ancient
times.
52r Workshop
In this case, it is the terminal portion
of the building that delimits this side of the bridge, located on the
downstream side and oriented towards via de' Guicciardini. Here must
have been the door that led to the stairs to ascend to the crenellated
gallery. In this case, above the fourteenth-century arch, is a
tabernacle with an architectural aedicule of a late seventeenth-century
character, characterized by a broken tympanum supported by two pilasters
of the Tuscan order. Inside the arched niche - decorated on the intrados
with angelic protomes and vegetable ornaments - is a fresco depicting
the Madonna with Child and San Giovannino. On the corner of the
building, at the top, to underline precisely that the building of the
real bridge ended here, are two shields suspended with a track: the one
facing the internal street is now illegible, the one on the head,
although abraded, shows the presence of the cross of the People is still
clear. As regards the room (now occupied by the Vacheron+Constantin
shop) it can be assumed that it was originally intended for a different
use than that of a shop, and that perhaps it housed a small oratory.
54r Workshop
The shop has a different shape from the others, with
a wider and more modern front, probably reconfigured during the
restoration of the Palazzo della Commenda del Santo Sepolcro in the
1950s. It is more of a warehouse of the same than one of the typical
shops of the bridge, being outside the ancient crenellated building.
27r-29r Workshop
This is the first shop of the ancient body of the
building that runs along the Ponte Vecchio upstream (characterized by
the passage of the Vasari Corridor), after the widening of the square
towards via Guicciardini, and which therefore has both a front looking
at the internal street of the bridge , both overlooking the open space.
In this case the presumable previous madiella was replaced by advancing
the entire elevation, for its entire height up to the eaves, obviously
exploiting the maximum depth of the madiella itself. Although these
transformations are mostly documented in the 19th century, here the
exhibition would seem to indicate an intervention from the early 20th
century. On the side of the square, the façade is made up of large stone
ashlars, with a window (now a showcase), once the access door to the
balcony that extended above the building, before the corridor was built.
There are two plaques: one with a short passage from Dante Alighieri's
Divine Comedy, the other placed by the Municipality in 2007 on the
occasion of the conferment of honorary citizenship on Gerhard Wolf, the
German consul who worked hard to save the Ponte Vecchio in 1944.
Currently the room, formerly of the A. Risaliti goldsmith shop, is
occupied by the Cassetti Rolex boutique. Precisely on the occasion of
the recent change of ownership and the important restoration work on the
building (2015), the same property promoted a detailed archival research
on the fund, documenting both the goldsmiths who succeeded in running
the shop after it had been originally intended for shoemakers (among the
many illustrious names are those of Jacopo Mariani, Angiolo Labardi and
Liborio Zazzerrini), both attesting to 1754 the elevation of the
workshop relative to the body projecting towards the Arno, and dating to
1901 the advancement of the prospectus of the which has been mentioned.
31r Workshop
With this shop, on this side upstream, it resumes
the succession of shops characterized, according to a custom established
starting from the eighteenth century, by the madielles, which follow one
another with slight variations until they lean against the Mannelli
tower.
33r Workshop
Covered by the roof like the other shops
on this side, and open with the typical madielle, since 1926 it has been
home to the Cassetti shop.
35r Workshop
Closed by wooden walls
with a twentieth-century look.
37r-39r Shops
Similar in
decoration and shape, with the typical madielle, the two shops are home
to the same shop.
41r Workshop
Similar to the neighboring
shops, it is distinguished by the tiles rich in iron and lily-shaped
hinges, in homage to the Florentine symbol.
43r Workshop
Closed by wooden compartments instead of the traditional tiles, there is
a lot of the presence of a mezzanine in the arch arch.
45r
Workshop
From the prospectus without tiles.
47r Workshop
Characterized by a front without tiles.
49r Workshop
The shop
has a modern madiella (both for the carpentry part and for the masonry
part), the result of a twentieth-century intervention, albeit respectful
of the eighteenth-century dimensions and shapes. In the piece of ancient
masonry that can be seen above the eaves, between the corbels on which
the Vasari corridor stands in this section, is a stone shield supported
by a girdle on which is the insignia of the Guelph party, a rare
testimony of a series that marked the bridge in several points and which
is currently documented by coats of arms that are mostly illegible due
to the abrasion of the surfaces. Bearing in mind the different
configuration of the wall apparatus beyond this sign, the different
dimensions of the three shops that follow on this side, the alignments
of this portion with the one downstream, it is necessary to identify in
this section the limit of the ancient fourteenth-century bridge, at the
which originally leaned against a house owned by the Mannelli family,
pertaining to the complex marked by the tower that still stands on this
side towards via de' Bardi.
51r-53r Shops
The two shops, now
shops, have different dimensions and in this case decidedly smaller than
the others which mark the bridge with their presence, occupying a single
arch in two. Bearing in mind the different configuration of the masonry
as well as the sign of the Guelph part which is located above the
preceding shop and the alignments of this portion with the one
downstream, one must in fact recognize in this section a space which -
also if today it is seen as an integral part of the Ponte Vecchio -
originally it was located outside the fourteenth-century building, and
was occupied by a house owned by the Mannellis (later purchased by the
Municipality and presumably transformed into a workshop as early as the
fifteenth century), to be relation to that complex of family buildings
dominated by the tower that still stands on this side towards via de'
Bardi.
55r Workshop
The shop, formerly a workshop, like the
two rooms that precede it, has a different size and configuration
compared to the others that mark the bridge with their presence. Bearing
in mind the different nature of the masonry as well as the sign of the
Guelph part which is located above the shop at number 49 red and the
alignments of this portion with the one downstream, one must in fact
recognize in this stretch a space which - although today it is seen as
an integral part of the Ponte Vecchio - originally it was located
outside the fourteenth-century factory, and was occupied by a house
owned by the Mannellis to be related to that complex of family buildings
dominated by the tower which still stands today stands on this side.
The west facing center of the bridge houses the monument with a bust
of Benvenuto Cellini, the most famous of Florentine goldsmiths, created
by Raffaello Romanelli and inaugurated in 1901, on the occasion of the
postponed celebrations of the fourth centenary of the artist's birth.
The base, which in some elements represents a citation of that of
Perseus, was made by Egisto Orlandini, with a small fountain and the
water gushing from four masks placed on the corners of the pedestal and
conveyed into as many shell-valve basins, all enlivened by a repertoire
of Mannerist decorations.
The gate of Cellini's monument was used
by lovers to hang padlocks on it, a symbol of a love bond, well before
the more well-known custom at Ponte Milvio in Rome. Measures have been
taken since 2006 to discourage such actions, which have been rarer ever
since.
The bridge also has another fountain, more current but
potable and functional, on the opposite side.
Above the red 52 is a tabernacle with a late seventeenth-century
architectural aedicule, characterized by a broken tympanum supported by
two pilasters of the Tuscan order. Inside the arched niche - decorated
on the intrados with angelic protomes and vegetable ornaments - is a
fresco depicting the Madonna with Child and San Giovannino. This has
been attributed to Giovanni da San Giovanni, author of other tabernacles
and whose presence in these shops on the Ponte Vecchio is documented by
a passage by Filippo Baldinucci who recalled how he had entirely
decorated that of his friend Bastiano Guidi, a jeweler. In any case, the
coats of arms that can be seen on the sides should be of the Michelozzi
family.
Despite the difficulty of reading linked to the numerous
repaintings for restoration, the tabernacle has recently been backdated
and brought closer to the names of Domenico Puligo and Giovanni Antonio
Sogliani, in any case to a context in which Andrea del Sarto's lesson
still appears strong.