Ponte Principe Amedeo Savoia Aosta

Often called simply PASA from its acronym, the bridge that connects Piazza della Rovere, in the Rione Borgo, with the Rione Ponte is dedicated to Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta: three simple masonry arches lined with white marble separated by pillars, shaped vaguely like a ship, with two single-arched lancet windows to alleviate water pressure during Tiber floods.

Its lines reflect the architectural dictates of the time of its construction. 109 meters long and 20 meters wide, the bridge was in fact built in the midst of the Fascist period by the firm of German-Italian engineer Rodolfo Stoelcker, who, thanks to his excellent relations with the regime, had participated in contracts all over Italy, also taking care of some of the new buildings at La Sapienza University. Inscriptions on the bridge’s parapets explain the dedication by recalling the military valor of the prince, who had participated in World War I as a volunteer and then in World War II in East Africa. Viceroy of Ethiopia since 1937, in May 1941 Amedeo had been forced to surrender to the British army in the mountains of Amba Alagi after a long and steadfast resistance, which had earned all the survivors of the Italian forces the honor of arms.

Begun in 1939, the bridge was completed in 34 months and inaugurated in 1942, the same year Amedeo died in a prison camp in Nairobi. The massive new infrastructure replaced one of the last papal commissions before the Unification of Italy, a suspended iron and wooden structure built at the height of the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini. Commissioned by Pius IX to facilitate the entrance of pilgrims to St. Peter’s by creating an intermediate crossing between Ponte Sisto and Ponte Sant’Angelo, the “Ponte dei Fiorentini” (or “Ponte del soldino”- Penny bridge because of the toll required to cross it) was described at the time as one of the “most beautiful and perfect works of its kind”. Nevertheless, it was dismantled following the 1931 Master Plan and in order to collect iron for wartime needs.