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Dec 11, 2022
You have visited the Ponte Vecchio and been captivated by the atmosphere of the medieval buildings. You notice the many jewelry stores occupying the shops are beginning to look similar as your credit card tiptoes disagreeably close to its limit. Happily, the real gem of the Arno is the next bridge downstream. The Ponte Santa Trinità conntects Piazza Santa Trinità with Piazza de’ Frescobaldi. The Frescobaldi family paid for the first construction of the bridge which is named after the Basilica di Santa Trinità. Every few decades the Arno’s flooding brought down the Ponte Santa Trinità until 1557, when Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici decided to rebuild it as a work of art.
Cosimo was building his new kingdom on the other side of the Arno, the Oltrarno, and wanted to dazzle visitors on their approach. He trusted his vision to architect Giorgio Vasari, who gave it to Bartolomeo Ammannati. No expense was spared during its building from 1567 to 1570. The new Ponte Santa Trinità rested on strong elliptical arches designed to withstand the surges of the Arno. In addition to its engineering, the bridge was envisioned as an artwork, and Michelangelo is even thought to have been consulted on its design. The walk to the Oltrarno with its Medici palaces was expected to awe potential clients and challengers. In the tradition of Roman emperors, stories of Cosimo’s victories greeted travelers along their walk. Cosimo II added statues at the corners of the Ponte Santa Trinità representing the four seasons. The new Ponte Santa Trinità was a masterpiece that withstood the Arno’s floods, but not Nazi troops, who in 1944 dynamited the bridge as they fled the city, sending it once again into the river.
The city of Florence was determined to rebuild the the Ponte Santa Trinità. Despite pressures to replace it with conventional concrete and asphalt the character of Florence won out. The fallen stones of the bridge were dredged from the Arno and it was reassembled, using 16th century tools, and following the original plans. Replacement stones were cut from original quarry in the Boboli Gardens. The Ponte Santa Trinità reopened in 1957 minus the head of one of the four statues, Spring, which was still missing. Then, four years later, it was found while dredging the Arno. The fully restored Ponte Santa Trinità now stands as a triumph of Florence’s artistic spirit.
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