Long Ago in Spoleto: Ponte Sanguinario

July 30, 2021 News, Offerte, Visore Home No comments

In May 1844 someone P. B. Von Brunen, driven to Italy by his love of beauty, wrote a passionate letter to the director of a weekly magazine of literature and fine arts, printed in Rome, called “L’Album”, praising the many architectural wonders of Spoleto but referring in particular to one of its famous monuments, the Ponte Sanguinario, an imposing flyover from the Roman era (1st century BC), in travertine blocks, still in use in the Middle Ages but buried in later centuries by the debris of the Tessino torrent.

In his letter, Mr Von Buren, who claims to be a native of Utrecht (the city that houses part of the remains of Pontianus, the patron saint of Spoleto), does not hide the deep emotion he felt ‘in front of the stones of the bridge bathed in the blood of so many Christians’ and recalls how the bridge was ‘discovered almost by miracle in 1816 when the foundations were being dug’ of the nearby bridge later named after Garibaldi. Von Buren goes on to say that although ‘it had become an object of veneration and admiration, nevertheless (and I couldn’t find out why) it was buried again after a few years. Having been brought back to light again last summer, I thought it be common will to correct this past error by returning it to public view; I questioned many excellent citizens who could be informed of this, who replied with sorrowful words that it would perhaps be covered up. In the fear, therefore, that this misfortune will be realised, I thought it would be useful to make this drawing, which I send you, so that you may preserve the memory, making it known to your numerous readers, together with this brief news’.

Together with measurements and historical details on the structure, the article includes the precious drawing that we propose here, which gives us a rare image of the bridge, which at the time was still completely in view, with only one arch completely buried. The fear of a new interment, a few years after the fortunate discovery, urges Van Brunen to pray: “May the heavens […] that this monument, which can rightly be called classical and venerable, be preserved as a decoration for this city of so many illustrious titles, and that its excellent magistrates […] take all the care that is appropriate to their office; which cannot be doubted by those who know what their wisdom is”.

Two years go by and another document reveals a curious circumstance. In addition to a new drawing of the bridge, among the notes in the margins of a lyrical composition by Francesco Innocenzi from Spoleto, entitled “Il Ponte Sanguinario di Spoleti – Visione”, it turns out that the drawing published in the magazine “L’Album” bears the signature of Casimiro Pentozzi and that the mysterious P. B. Von Brunen is actually politician and art historian Pietro Fontana (1777-1854), one of the most important figures in Spoleto’s cultural history, to whom we owe, among other things, the creation of the city picture gallery.

Fontana fought like a lion to preserve this important testimony to Romanity and Christianity. Not by chance, since 1848, the work “by concern of Pietro Fontana and painter Pentorri (?), was protected with the construction of a basement, which was almost immediately invaded by water leakage”, as explained by Giovanna Giubbini in an entry dedicated to the monument in the volume “Giuseppe Sordini. Luoghi e documenti di un archeologo spoletino’ (1994).

The battle to protect the monument thus passed from Pietro Fontana to Achille Sansi, Spoleto’s foremost archaeologist. Giubbini again reminds us how, in 1896, after the ground near the bridge sank and the city administration closed the arches to avoid possible accidents or misfortunes, Sansi, “worried that such an intervention would prevent the monument from being completely excavated in the near future, tried to find the funding needed to complete the work”, asking the Ministry for two thousand five hundred lire. “Unfortunately, by the time the ministerial reply arrived, the wall had already been largely built […] In the years that followed, the scholar continued to work on the project to isolate the Roman bridge […] In 1903 […] engineer Bocci drew up an appropriate project for the bridge […] concerning in particular the isolation of the arches downstream and upstream, and the excavation to bring to light the floor of the ancient stalls. Bocci’s project finally attracted the interest of the city council, which promised to ask the Ministry for at least 1,000 lire to carry out [the work]. The work was completed in 1906.”

The monument, which today consists of two round travertine arches, can be visited in a basement located under Piazza Garibaldi.

NEWS ARCHIVES
Pin It

Related Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *