An old bridge in Palermo and pointed arches

The Ponte dell’ Ammiraglio (Admiral’s Bridge) in Palermo, Sicily, built from 1125-1135 (or 1113, according to the Italian Wikipedia), is one of the oldest surviving post-Roman era arch bridges in Europe.  The bridge has been restored and surrounded by a new park, but also being surrounded by busy Sicilian roads, cut off from its original purpose, and outside the main tourist area, it is little visited.

There is also little information about this bridge on the Internet (at least in English), but I did find a lengthy discussion on the history of pointed arches, and where they came from, which is well worth a read at:

Nexus Network Journal (architecture and mathematics on-line)

Thanks to the comment from Pier below, a You tube video of an event on the bridge:

This entry was posted in Arch structures, Historic Bridges, Newton and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to An old bridge in Palermo and pointed arches

  1. Pier's avatar Pier says:

    Questo ponte è noto ai palermitani con il nome “Ponte Garibaldi”
    This bridge is well known to the citizens of Palermo with the name “Ponte Garibaldi”

    Like

    • dougaj4's avatar dougaj4 says:

      Thank’s Pier, searching on Ponte Garibaldi Palermo gave me many more useful links, including a short Youtube video that I have added to the post

      Like

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