Ponte del Paradiso: Difference between revisions

The '''Ponte del Paradiso''' is a bridge located in Venice, [[Italy]]. Crossing the Rio del Mondo Novo, the bridge is almost entirely constructed out of [[Istrian stone]] bricks while the steps are paved with [[Trachyte]].<ref name="Venipedia">{{cite web |title=Ponte del Paradiso |url=http://www.venipedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=Ponte_del_Paradiso |website=Venipedia |accessdateaccess-date=25 February 2019}}</ref> It is located within [[Castello, Venice|Castello]], the largest of the Venetian [[Sestiere|sestieressestiere]]s. The bridge is known for the unique arch on its southern side serving as an entrance to the Calle del Paradiso, an alley famous for its wooden overhanging eaves. <ref>{{cite book |title=Top 10 Venice |date=2002 |publisher=Eyewitness Travel}}</ref>

According to Nuova encyclopedia Italiana:<ref>Gerolamo Boccardio e Stefano Pagliani, Nuova enciclopedia italiana, Unione tipografico-editrice torinese, Italia, p. 38.</ref>: "[its] called because the patrician Paradiso family owned some houses in the area". Instead, the historian Tassini<ref>Giuseppe Tassini, Curiosità Veneziane, ovvero origini delle denominazioni stradali di Venezia., Venezia, Filippi, 1970.</ref> mentions the "patrician Paradiso family" but also remembers that it did not appear to own buildings in the area. Sources such as ASVE<ref>L’Archivio di Stato di Venezia (ASVE): Indice Generale, vol. I, Venenezia, 1937, 75. Indice Cittadinanze Originarie, Avogaria di Comun, b. 368. Cc 1-28.</ref>(1937), Sanudo<ref>Guglielmo Berchet, Nicolò Barozzi e Marco Allegri (a cura di), I Diari1 di Marino Sanuto, vol. LVIII, Venezia, 1903, pp. 296, 301, 357.</ref>(1970) and Bellavitis <ref>Anna Bellavitis, Identité, mariage, mobilité sociale. Citoyennes et citoyens à Venise au XVIe&siècle, Rome, École Française de Rome, 2001, pp. 83-84.</ref> cite the birth of another rich Paradiso family in this city, now descended from Jewish converts such as Marco Paradiso and his son Francesco Paradiso (Jacob Meshulam and Saloman Meshulam).<ref>Francesca Medioli, Archivio Veneto. Sesta serie, n. 5, Venezia, 2013, p. 142.</ref>

Above the bridge's southern doorway lies the Arco del Paradiso, also referred to as The Madonna Arch, is a carefully sculptured [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]]-style arch depicting a [[Madonna (art)|Madonna]] at whose feet rests a friar and a couple on the canal side and inward side respectively. To either side are the arms of the Mocenigo and Foscari families, likely commemorating a marriage between the two in 1491. <ref>{{cite web |title=Arco del Paradiso |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/activities/360/ |publisher=UNESCO |accessdateaccess-date=25 February 2019}}</ref>

The arch was previously in poor condition until a restoration project leadled by UNESCO lasting from 1993 until 1994.

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