Ponte Vecchio, Bassano

The Ponte Vecchio of Bassano del Grappa is a covered wooden bridge over the Brenta designed by Andrea Palladio, and unlike his villas and churches it is built entirely of timber. Its five spans, each around 13 m, rest on four wooden piers shaped to part the current: each pier is a cluster of thick piles driven into the riverbed, with shorter piles in front giving it a sloping, boat-like profile. Above, plain Tuscan columns carry the beam on which the pitched roof rests — the only overtly architectural touch in a structure otherwise all carpentry.

A bridge stood here from at least the early 13th century, the essential link between Bassano and Vicenza, and it was burnt and swept away more than once in the wars and floods of the following centuries. After a flood destroyed it in October 1567, Palladio first proposed a three-arched stone bridge on Roman models. The town council turned it down and asked for something closer to the old bridge, so in 1569 he produced this design: a traditional form, rebuilt with far more sophisticated engineering. It stood until a flood in 1748, and has been faithfully rebuilt to the same design each time since.

Its later history is written in wartime. Eugène de Beauharnais burnt it in 1813; Italian troops crossed it on their way to the front in the First World War; and on the evening of 17 February 1945 partisans blew it up. The Germans then shot three captured partisans on the bridge in reprisal. It was rebuilt once more and inaugurated again in October 1948; because many of the builders were former Alpini mountain troops, it has been known ever since as the Ponte degli Alpini. In 2019 it was declared a national monument, after a restoration that replaced its decayed underwater foundations with stainless steel.

At the town end of the bridge is the Nardini distillery, founded in 1779 and said to be the oldest in Italy — a reminder that Bassano is the home of grappa.

Getting there

The bridge is in the centre of Bassano del Grappa, in the province of Vicenza. The nearest airport is Treviso (TSF), about 38 km away.