Rialto Bridge (Ponte di Rialto)

Venedig · Italy · Bridge

The bridge demanded a soul. The builder tried to cheat the devil with a rooster — and paid with his pregnant wife and their unborn child.

The Rialto Bridge opened in 1591, but legend says the works collapsed again and again until the builder Antonio da Ponte kept watch one night among the stones. A tall man in a cloak stepped out of the dark: the devil, who promised the arch would hold in exchange for the soul of the first to cross it. Antonio meant to cheat him by sending a rooster over first. The devil foresaw the trick and had word sent to his wife that her husband was in mortal danger. Heavily pregnant, she ran out onto the newly finished span, fell and died, and the unborn child with her. Ever since, mother and child are said to wander the bridge on winter nights. A gondolier is said to have heard a small sneeze in the dark and answered bless you — and that one act of mercy freed the child's soul from the bridge.

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Where is Rialto Bridge (Ponte di Rialto) located?

Rialto Bridge (Ponte di Rialto) is in Venedig, Italy.

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