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The Bridge of Sighs (Ponte dei Sospiri) is a covered bridge made of limestone in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Venice, Italy. It’s attached to the Doge’s Palace.
The Bridge of Sighs was built in 1614 by architect Antonio Contino. It connects the Doge’s Palace to the New Prisons (Prigioni Nuove). The best view of the bridge is from the Straw Bridge (Ponte della Paglia), a bridge outside of the Doge’s Palace’s southern façade.
Crossing the Bridge
To access the bridge, you need to buy a ticket to the Doge’s Palace. After visiting the institutional rooms on the first floor, the self-guided tour takes you over one of the two corridors on the bridge to the New Prisons. This corridor is linked in to the Chamber of the Magistrate for Laws (Sale del Magistrato alle Leggi).
It’s possible to stop and look out the window, which may have been the last view of Venice for many convicted criminals before being taken to their cells. The view isn’t that great but you can imagine the sadness they may have felt, hence the name “Bridge of Sighs”.
New Prisons
At the other end of the bridge is the Palace of the New Prisons (Palazzo delle Prigioni Nuove), which is actually in the Castello district. It was built in order to improve conditions for prisoners with larger cells that let in more light, but that wasn’t the case in some cells.
On display in the prison were drawings made by some criminals incarcerated in the prison.
We were also able to take a look at the courtyard with its white brick walls and grated windows. A well supplying water to the prison sits in the center.
Second Corridor
Once we finished visiting the prison, we walked back over the Bridge of Sighs through another corridor connecting to the Chamber of the Censors (Sala dei Censori) on the ground floor. The window in this corridor faces the lagoon.
