TIBERIAN BRIDGE RIMINI

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MONUMENTS RIMINI

The Tiberian Bridge

The Roman bridge of Rimini, on the Marecchia river, which was named after the Emperor Tiberius, is situated where the Roman Road Aemilia starts, at the opposite side of the decumanus maximus, in front of the Arch of Augustus, and is still extremely well kept, in spite of the elapsed centuries. The Tiberian Bridge was, in fact, under construction almost 2,000 years ago. As the inscriptions on the internal sides of the bridge’s parapet tell us, the Emperor Augustus made a start on it in 14 A.D., during the last year of his lifetime, and the Emperor Tiberius, Augustus’ successor, completed it in 21 A.D. The Tiberian Bridge is over 70 metres in length and 8.65 metres wide. Built with parallelepipedal blocks of white Istrian stone, it stands on four piers, which rest on stone foundations, and support five potent arches – the central and widest one, with the ogive slightly lowered, is over ten metres wide. The piers, which are built in a small slanting direction in comparison with the bridge’s axis, to favour the river flow, maintaining nevertheless the road over the bridge in a rectilinear direction, end, in their lower parts, with breakwater spurs to brake the force of the running water. In addition to the noteworthy technical capacity shown by the architects, the quest of harmony and elegance is also evident. The massive load-bearing structures, in fact, has been lightened by the brightness of the stone and by the architectonic decoration, i.e. by the niches with blank windows and triangular gables situated among the pendentives of the arches, and by the overhanging moulding. In the accessory decoration, as in the Arch of Augustus, there are also sacral and commemorative purposes. The niches have an evident religious significance, and the figures in relief on the ashlar in the middle of the arches are attributes and sacrificial instruments, as the patera, the pitcher and the lituus, or insignia of civic honours, as the clypeus and the civic oak crown, symbolizing the honours given to the Emperor Augustus. The parapet, in the end, has a round profile and has been slightly raised in the middle of the tracing, where the inscription are. Work of masterly skill, the Tiberian Bridge has undergone, during the centuries, many events, which, however, don’t endanger its formal understanding. In 551 A.D., during the war between the Byzantines and the Goths, who since three years were occupying the city of Rimini, the Goth commander Usdrila ordered to demolish the Tiberian Bridge in order to face the siege of the Byzantine Narsetes. The bridge has been rebuilt soon afterwards, trying to replace the stone blocks as they were before. But some mistakes done during the replacement have brought about an alteration, still visible, which confers to the first arch, on the side of  quarter San Giuliano, a slightly ogival profile.