Florence: Ponte Vecchio

The Old Bridge crosses the Arno River at its narrowest point with three solid arches. It almost certainly succeeded a bridge from Roman times, probably upstream than the present one. The bridge suffered demolitions because of both the 1117 and the 1333 floods. As a result Neri di Fioravante built a bridge in 1345: it was much more consolidated, in order to resist the floods.

That bridge is still visible today. The workshops that developed there were destined for the Wool Guild, for the butchers and greengrocers until the end of the 16th century, when the Grand Duke Ferdinando I wanted to substitute them with goldsmiths and silversmiths workshops.

At the end of the bridge, already in the Oltrarno (Over the Arno River) area, the Torre dei Mannelli (Tower of the Mannelli) is recognizable. The sequence of shops is interrupted by some sort of small square, leaving room for the view of the river both downstream and upstream. At the center there is a bust of Benvenuto Cellini, a bronze by Raffaello Romanelli from 1900. The Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) was the only one spared by the destruction caused by the retreating Germans in August 1944.