The Sisto bridge was built between 1473 and 1479 and was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV (1471-184) after whom it is named. The architect Baccio Pontelli reused the foundations of an ancient Roman bridge, on the same site, the Pons Aurelius, which had been destroyed in the early Middle Ages, to build Ponte Sisto.
The predecessor bridge of the Sisto Bridge, the Pons Aurelius, was mentioned for the first time by the authors in the 4th and 5th centuries and was later known in the Middle Ages as "Pons Antoninus", "Pons Antonini in Arenula" and "Pons Ianicularis id est pons ruptus vulgariter nominatus and Tremelus and Antoninus".
The Pons Antoninus was partially destroyed in 772, at the time when the Lombard king Desiderius took Rome, and was rebuilt in its present form by Pope Sixtus IV.
The stone bridge has four arches and has a round hole ("oculus") on the central pylon, to reduce the hydraulic pressure on the structure in case of strong flood.
On the left bridgehead are copies of two marble slabs (removed in the 1990s after continuous vandalism) bearing an elegant Latin inscription composed by the Renaissance humanist Bartolomeo Platina in honor of Sixtus IV in occasion of the construction of the bridge. They read:
XYSTVS IIII PONT MAX
AD VTILITATEM P RO PEREGRINAEQVE MVLTI
TVDINIS AD JVBILAEVM VENTVRAE PONTEM
HVNC QVEM MERITO RVPTVM VOCABANT A FVN
DAMENTIS MAGNA CVRA ET IMPENSA RESTI
TVIT XYSTVMQVE SVO DE NOMINE APPELLARI VOLVIT
and
MCCCCLXXV
QVI TRANSIS XYST QVARTI BENEFICIO
DEVM ROGA VT PONTEFICEM OPTIMVM MAXI
MVM DIV NOBIS SALVET AC SOSPITET BENE
VALE QVISQVIS ES VBI HAEC PRECATVS
FVERIS
In 1877, two large pedestrian cast-iron footbridges resting on marble consoles were added to the sides of the bridge. After much controversy, the mayor of Rome, Francesco Rutelli, decided to demolish them in 2000, restoring the pristine silhouette of Ponte Sisto. Since then, traffic on the bridge has been reserved for pedestrians.
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