Theme Week Venice – Bridge of Sighs
Wednesday, 8 January 2020 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union General
Reading Time: 3 minutes
© Didier Descouens/cc-by-sa-4.0
🔊 Listen to this Post
The Bridge of Sighs is a bridge in
Venice , Italy. The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone, has windows with stone bars, passes over the Rio di Palazzo, and connects the New Prison (
Prigioni Nuove ) to the interrogation rooms in the
Doge’s Palace . It was designed by Antonio Contino, whose uncle
Antonio da Ponte designed the
Rialto Bridge , and it was built in 1600.
The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge’s English name was bequeathed by Lord Byron in the 19th century as a translation from the Italian “Ponte dei sospiri”, from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice through the window before being taken down to their cells. In reality, the days of inquisitions and summary executions were over by the time that the bridge was built, and the cells under the palace roof were occupied mostly by small-time criminals. In addition, little could be seen from inside the bridge due to the stone grills covering the windows.
Palazzo Ducale with the Bridge of Sighs and the New Prison to the right © Inselmann/cc-by-sa-3.0
The 1861 opera
Le pont des soupirs by
Jacques Offenbach features the bridge, as does the song “Venice” by
Gibraltarian band
Melon Diesel .
French-American singer-songwriter
Charles Aznavour recorded his famous song
Que C’est Triste Venise in 1964. Its
lyrics make reference to the bridge and to several other Venetian features.
The 1979 film “A Little Romance” follows a French boy and an American girl who meet in Paris and begin a romance that leads to a journey to Venice where they hope to seal their love forever with a kiss beneath the Bridge of Sighs at sunset.
Here you can find the complete
Overview of all Theme Weeks .
Read more on
Wikipedia Bridge of Sighs (
Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State -
Weather report by weather.com -
Global Passport Power Rank -
Travel Risk Map -
Democracy Index -
GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank -
Global Competitiveness Report -
Corruption Perceptions Index -
Press Freedom Index -
World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index -
UN Human Development Index -
Global Peace Index -
Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index ). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at
comment@wingsch.net . Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.
VIDEO
Recommended posts:
[caption id="attachment_193062" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Imre Solt/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Jumeirah Beach Residence (also known as JBR) is a 1.7 kilometres (1.1mi) long, 2 square kilometres (0.77 sq mi) gross floor area waterfront community located against the Arabian Gulf in Dubai Marina in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is a residential development and contains 40 towers (35 are residential and 5 are hotels). JBR can accommodate about 15,000 people, living in its apartments and hotel rooms. The Proje...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_230797" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Bay of Lugano © SamuelFerrara/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Ticino, sometimes Tessin, officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts and its capital city is Bellinzona. It is also traditionally divided into the Sopraceneri and the Sottoceneri, respectively north and south of Monte Ceneri. Red and blue are the colours of its flag...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_241559" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Symphony Lake © Velela[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Singapore Botanic Gardens is a 165-year-old tropical garden located at the fringe of the Orchard Road shopping district in Singapore. It is one of three gardens, and the only tropical garden, to be honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Botanic Gardens has been ranked Asia's top park attraction since 2013, by Tripadvisor Travellers' Choice Awards. It was declared the inaugural Garden of the Year by the In...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_224769" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Beach huts © panoramio.com - corinne potet/cc-by-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Sainte-Adresse is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the region of Normandy, France. A coastal suburb situated some 2 miles (3.2 km) northwest of Le Havre city centre, at the junction of the D147 and the D940. The English Channel forms the western border of the commune.
The oldest known name of the commune was Caput Caleti mentioned in 1240. Later known as Saint-Denis...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_229389" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Jaisalmer Fort © Gérard Janot/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The North Western Indian State of Rajasthan has over one hundred fortifications on hills and mountainous terrain. Six Hill Forts of Rajasthan, spread across Rajasthan state in northern India, have been clustered as a series and designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. The ‘Hill Forts of Rajasthan’ was initially submitted to the UNESCO as a serial property formed by five Rajput forts in the Ara...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_159769" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Mediaeval Imperial Palace © Tobias Helfrich[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Goslar is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Goslar and located on the northwestern slopes of the Harz mountain range. The Old Town of Goslar and the Mines of Rammelsberg are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Goslar was founded in 922 AD by the Saxon King Henry I. the Fowler, although it is widely assumed that it has been settled since...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_165591" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Vino Versum Poysdorf © Werner Kraus/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Weinviertel ("wine quarter") or Viertel unter dem Manhartsberg ("area below the Manhartsberg") is located in the northeast of Lower Austria. In the east, the Weinviertel borders Slovakia at the March River. In the south, it borders Mostviertel and Industrieviertel, its limits being the Wagram, the Danube and the Marchfeld. Its western neighbor is Waldviertel, the traditional border bein...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_159771" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Fortress Wawel © Hstoffels[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow, is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River (Polish: Wisła) in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural and artistic life and is one of Poland's most important economic centres. It was the capital of Poland from 1038 to 15...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_151667" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © royalcaribbean.de[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Quantum class is an upcoming class of cruise ships from Royal Caribbean International. On February 11, 2011, Royal Caribbean announced that they had ordered the first of a new class of ships from the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg scheduled to be delivered by Fall 2014. At the time, the project was code-named "Project Sunshine". The Quantum-class ships will surpass the earlier Freedom-class ships by over 14,000 GT, ...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_164331" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Sonoma Vineyards in Russian River Valley © flickr.com - Simon Davison/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Wine Country is an area of Northern California known worldwide as a premium wine-growing region. Viticulture and wine-making have been practiced in the region since the mid-19th century. There are over 400 wineries in the area north of San Francisco, mostly located in the area's valleys, including Napa Valley in Napa County, and the Sonoma Valley, Alexande...
[ read more ]
