The scene takes place on board the line 1 vaporetto. A child of around three years old points to the steel and glass structure that spans the Grand Canal and exclaims “
Ponte!
".
His parents reply
"Yes, my darling... ponte brutto
!"
» And the child repeats: «
ugly bridge, ugly bridge!
".
In Venice, we learn very early to hate the work of Santiago Calatrava, inaugurated in 2008 to connect Piazzale Roma, the only road access to the city, to the station district.
Every morning, many people cross it to enter Venice: tourists, but also employees leaving for Mestre, on the mainland.
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Wanted to be transparent and light, the glass bridge allows pedestrians to admire the city as soon as they arrive.
Provided the weather is nice.
Because in case of bad weather, it is better to watch your feet so as not to slip on the glass steps of irregular lengths, transformed into an ice rink.
Only a central band, in trachyte, remains accessible.
“
In winter, every morning, we have to walk in single file like roped climbers to cross the bridge.
It's ridiculous !
“says Giuseppe, a resident of the Cannaregio district, who crosses it every day to get to his office.
Read alsoVenice: the architect Calatrava sentenced to a fine of 78,000 euros for his contested bridge
5000 complaints
About 5,000 complaints are said to have been filed by "victims of the bridge", which cost them sprained ankles, bruises or fractures. And that's not the only criticism addressed to the "
Calatrava bridge
", as the Venetians call it. In 2019, the Spanish arch-star was ordered to pay €78,000 to the state. In question, errors of calculation at the origin of an additional cost of production. The bridge cost the city 11.2 million, while the estimated budget was 6.7 million euros.
Laure Miedico, a French architect based in Venice, confides to
Le Figaro
: “
The replacement of the glass parts is inevitable, for safety reasons but also for ergonomics. Currently, pedestrians are forced to circulate on the central part, in trachyte, which reduces the flow of pedestrians by a third
,” she laments. “
It's a bridge that was designed to be admired rather than crossed. If the infrastructure becomes impracticable, the architecture is useless!
".
Sixteen steps have already been changed to stone during 2019, and on December 21, 2021, the town hall announced that it would release €500,000 to complete the work.
But the big replacement is not for tomorrow.
Before being able to start laying the trachyte steps, the company Insula, in charge of handling in Venice, must obtain the
via libera
- the green light, from the Soprintendenza, the body responsible for the protection of heritage assets by the Ministry of Italian culture.
An operation which should, in any case, remove the aesthetic aspect of the bridge, which was, according to the inhabitants, about the only quality that we could find in it...
