Without the Arno, Florence would be like Romolo - The Florentine

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Life in Italy
The night the bridges came falling down
When World War II ravaged Florence
by Deirdre Pirro
Rumours were rife all over the
city. Many said the Anglo-
American troops had already
reached the outskirts of the city.
However, one thing was certain. On
the afternoon of August 3, 1944, the
German High Command in Florence
had the following ordinance
displayed on the street corners:
Beginning from this moment, it is
prohibited for anyone to leave their
homes and walk in the streets or
piazzas of the City of Florence. All
the windows, even those in cellars,
together with the entrance and hallways
of houses, shall remain closed
day and night. The population is
advised to stay in their cellars, and
where they do not have one, to go to
a church or other big building. The
patrols of the German armed forces
have been ordered to shoot at anyone
who is found on the street or
who appears at the windows.
By dusk, the city was completely
deserted. That night fi ve of
the then six bridges crossing the
Arno—Ponte Santa Trinità, Ponte
delle Grazie, Ponte della Vittoria,
Ponte della Carraia and the Ponte
di Ferro—were all blown up, effectively
cutting the city in two.
Only Ponte Vecchio was spared.
Some say it was considered too
fragile to support the weight of
Allied tanks; others believed it was
because Adolf Hitler had admired
it so much on his visit to Florence
in 1938. Nonetheless, to block the
passage giving access to and from
Ponte Vecchio, the two neighbourhoods
leading up to it, on both sides
of the river, including Por Santa
Maria, via dei Bardi, Borgo San
Jacopo, and via Guicciardini were
also mined and blown up.
An old friend of mine, Pietro B.
vividly remembers his mother telling
him that the Germans had given
residents in these areas four hours
to leave their homes. At the time,
his family lived in an apartment in
one of the famous antique towers
in Borgo San Jacopo. Believing this
measure to be merely a temporary
one, his father created a makeshift
safe which he cemented into
the wall to hide what was left of
the family jewels until they could
return. Little did they know that
all that would be left the following
morning was rubble.
In fact, the explosion of the mines
began at eight o’clock at night on
August 3 and lasted right through
the night, the worst blast being
heard at four in the morning. The
next day, the Allied troops reached
Porta Romana, and the battle to
liberate Florence began and lasted
until the end of the month when the
city was fi nally freed.
In his book and photographic
record entitled 50 War-Damaged
Monuments of Italy (published in
1946), Emilio Lavagnini looks at
these events that ravaged Italy’s
artistic heritage. He maintains that
Ponte Santa Trinità was probably
‘the most important piece of architecture,
from the point of view of
art, that was destroyed by the war
in Italy’.
The fi rst Ponte Santa Trinità had
been constructed in 1252. The original
structure was replaced between
1566 and 1569 by the bridge built
by Bartolomeo Ammanati, based
on a design by Michaelangelo, and
adorned, at its two ends, by marble
statues representing the four seasons.
After the war, it was rebuilt,
according to Lavagnini, by using
every element of the original bridge
that could be ‘fi shed out of the Arno’.
This was done by damming the river.
Several pieces were immediately
recuperated while others remained
in the river’s depths for years. The
statue of the Primavera for example,
remained headless until 1961, when
the head was fi nally found and
restored to its rightful owner.
The reconstruction project was
entrusted to fl amboyant architect
Riccardo Gizdulich. He researched
photographs and the original drawings
left by Ammannati. Studying
the fragments dragged up from the
bottom of the river, Gizdulich concluded
that the original masons
must have used special chiselling
and cutting implements when building
the bridge. He designed similar
tools and had them made. A group
of artisans then painstakingly fi tted
together the old pieces of the bridge
with new stone taken from the same
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Culture & CUSTOMS
quarry in the Boboli Gardens that
Ammannati had used. The new
bridge took three years to complete
and was inaugurated in 1958.
The work was paid for by a citizens’
committee headed by the art
historian Bernard Berenson, which
raised $100,000 abroad, by the Florentines
who contributed $30,000
and by the Italian government,
which added a fi nal $350,000.
So the next time you cross Ponte
Santa Trinità or wander along Por
Santa Maria, via dei Bardi, Borgo
San Jacopo, or via Guicciardini,
look up at the mishmash of architectural
styles in the buildings there
and spare a thought for the night
they blew up the bridges.
Deirdre Pirro is an international
lawyer who lives and works in
Florence. Apart from the law, her
interests include modern Italian
history and the history of gastronomy.
She can be contacted at:
ddpirro@gmail.com