Ponte dei Sospiri, Venice

The Bridge of Sighs is an enclosed passage linking the Doge’s Palace with the New Prison across Rio di Palazzo. Antonio Contin designed this bridge, which was built between 1600 and 1603. Its purpose was practical: prisoners used it to travel from the cells toward the rooms where state inquisitors conducted their hearings.

The interior contains separate walkways, arranged so detainees heading to court would not meet those already convicted. Notice the pale stone enclosure and the single arch beneath its roofline. The arch carries sculpted heads, including a lion’s head, while reclining figures occupy the spaces beside it.

Openwork stone patterns shape the windows, and the coat of arms of Doge Marino Grimani appears with an allegorical figure of justice above it. The name Ponte dei Sospiri comes from the Italian for a sigh. The romantic idea that prisoners sighed at their last glimpse of the outside world belongs to later tradition, not to the bridge’s original function.

Lord Byron supplied the English translation, “Bridge of Sighs.” A later legend gives the bridge a gentler role: couples kissing in a gondola beneath it at sunset, as Saint Mark’s bells ring, are promised lasting love and happiness.