Comacchio and its Bridges.

Abstract

The town of Comacchio, thirty kilometers north of Ravenna, founded in the middle of a wide area of Valli da Pesca, remained isolated from terraferma until the mid-nineteenth century. After the devolution of the Ducato di Ferrara to the Santa Sede (1598), the Città di Comacchio, its salt lakes and its Valli da Pesca have been exploited by the Reverenda Camera Apostolica for nearly two centuries. In the first half of the seventeenth century, by the will of some enlightened Cardinal Legates of Ferrara, Comacchio has seen major urban and territorial actions, including the construction of a big number of interesting bridges and the excavation of a navigable canal, to put it in direct communication with the Adriatic Sea. This paper explains, briefly, the particular urban configuration of the city center and the construction of bridges, which are still the main feature of the lagoon city, and in particular the characteristics of three of them (Treponti, Ponte delle Carceri and Ponte di Piazza).