Friday, January 16, 2009

Daily Question 64

What it is?



View from the Bridge of Sighs

The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone and has windows with stone bars. It passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the old prisons to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. It was designed by Antoni Contino (whose uncle Antonio da Ponte had designed the Rialto Bridge), and built between 1600 and 1603.

The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice out the window before being taken down to their cells. In reality, the days of inquisitions and summary executions were over by the time the bridge was built, and the cells under the palace roof were occupied mostly by small-time criminals.

Cracked by JJ, Ajay parasuraman and Haroon Siyech

3 comments:

jj said...

Bridge of sighs. Kulter!!!!

apraman said...

Bridge of Sighs. God only knows how many times this has been asked in various blogs!

--Ajay Parasuraman

Haroon Siyech said...

Bridge of Sighs, Venice