The Ponte Coperto ("Covered Bridge") or the Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge") is a
stone
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
and brick
arch bridge
An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its structural load, loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either si ...
over the river
Ticino
Ticino ( ), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts ...
in
Pavia
Pavia ( , ; ; ; ; ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, in Northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino (river), Ticino near its confluence with the Po (river), Po. It has a population of c. 73,086.
The city was a major polit ...
, Italy.
The previous bridge, dating from 1354 (itself a replacement for a
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of Roman civilization
*Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
construction), was heavily damaged by
Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...
action in 1945.
A debate on whether to fix or replace the bridge ended when the bridge partially collapsed in 1947, requiring new construction, which began in 1949. The new bridge is based on the previous one, which had seven
arch
An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but stru ...
es to the current bridge's five.
The current bridge, like its predecessor, bears a chapel. The Ponte Coperto was, until the nineteenth century, the only brick bridge over the
Ticino
Ticino ( ), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts ...
from
Lake Maggiore
Lake Maggiore (, ; ; ; ; literally 'greater lake') or Verbano (; ) is a large lake located on the south side of the Alps. It is the second largest lake in Italy and the largest in southern Switzerland. The lake and its shoreline are divided be ...
to its confluence with the
Po.
History
Roman bridge
In pre-Roman times, Ticino flowed into the Po valley below the point where the bridge now stands. At the confluence of the two rivers, in territory then controlled by populations of the
Golasecca culture
The Golasecca culture (9th – 4th centuries BC) was a Prehistoric Italy#Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age/Prehistoric Italy#Iron Age, Early Iron Age culture in northern Italy, whose type-site was excavated at Golasecca in the province of Varese, Lomb ...
, around 600 BC, according to
Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...
, the
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foot ...
prince
Bellovesus
Bellovesus (Gaulish: 'Worthy of Power') is a legendary Gallic chief of the Bituriges, said to have lived ca. 600 BC. According to a legend recounted by Livy, the king Ambigatus sent his sister's sons Bellovesus and Segovesus in search of new la ...
defeated the
Etruscans
The Etruscan civilization ( ) was an ancient civilization created by the Etruscans, a people who inhabited Etruria in List of ancient peoples of Italy, ancient Italy, with a common language and culture, and formed a federation of city-states. Af ...
and, after settling on this territory with his people, then founded, further north, the city of
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
.
In 218 BC, when the meeting point between Ticino and Po had moved downstream several kilometers, the Romans, led by
Publius Cornelius Scipio, threw a bridge over the Ticino where now stands
Pavia
Pavia ( , ; ; ; ; ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, in Northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino (river), Ticino near its confluence with the Po (river), Po. It has a population of c. 73,086.
The city was a major polit ...
, which they destroyed after the defeat, suffered by
Hannibal
Hannibal (; ; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Punic people, Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Ancient Carthage, Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War.
Hannibal's fat ...
, in the
battle of Ticinus
The Battle of Ticinus was fought between the Carthaginian forces of Hannibal and a Roman army under Publius Cornelius Scipio in late November 218 BC as part of the Second Punic War. It took place in the flat country on the right bank of t ...
.
In Roman times, in the ancient town of
Ticinum
Ticinum (the modern Pavia) was an ancient city of Gallia Transpadana, founded on the banks of the river of the same name (now the Ticino) a little way above its confluence with the Padus ( Po).
It was said by Pliny the Elder to have been found ...
, there already was a bridge which connected the two shores of the river Ticino in the same location as the contemporary Ponte Coperto. The base of one of the central piers is still visible nowadays when there are low water levels. The orientation of the pier is proof that in Roman age the direction of the current of the river was different. It is believed that the Roman bridge was built during the
Augustan age.
Legend
According to the legend, in 999, on Christmas Eve, a few pilgrims wanted to attend the midnight mass in town but, because of the thick fog, their boats could not cross the river. Suddenly, a man in red clothes arrived, and he promised that he would immediately build a bridge in exchange of the first soul crossing the bridge. The man in red was the devil, and he was recognised only by the
Archangel Michael
Michael, also called Saint Michael the Archangel, Archangel Michael and Saint Michael the Taxiarch is an archangel and the warrior of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in third- and second ...
, who had arrived from the
church nearby. Michael pretended to accept the deal but, once the bridge was built, a goat crossed it first. The bridge therefore also became known as ('Devil's Bridge').
14th-century bridge

The Roman bridge continued to function even at the beginning of the Middle Ages and was restored in 860 by Emperor
Louis the German
Louis the German (German language, German: ''Ludwig der Deutsche''; c. 806/810 – 28 August 876), also known as Louis II of Germany (German language, German: ''Ludwig II. von Deutschland''), was the first king of East Francia, and ruled from 8 ...
, who ordered the vassals dependent on the
Abbey of Bobbio to come to
Pavia
Pavia ( , ; ; ; ; ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, in Northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino (river), Ticino near its confluence with the Po (river), Po. It has a population of c. 73,086.
The city was a major polit ...
to participate in the works. In the Middle Ages (then in modern times, until the advent of the railway), the bridge was very important because it was a nodal point at the intersection of two fundamental trade routes for the entire
Po Valley
The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain (, , or ) is a major geographical feature of northern Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of including its Venetian Plain, Venetic extension not actu ...
: the river route, through which it was possible to reach the
Adriatic
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...
and
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
and the "Lombardy" route which, crossing the covered bridge, connected
Genoa
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
with
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
.
A new bridge was rebuilt in 1351 on the ruins of the Roman bridge, following the project of Giovanni da Ferrara and Jacopo da Cozzo. The bridge was completed in 1354: it was covered and it had ten irregular arches and two towers at its ends, used for defence. The appearance of this bridge, although with only six arches, can be observed in
Bernardino Lanzani's frescoes (around 1524) in
Saint Theodore's Church. During the construction of the Spanish walls, in the 17th century, the first arch and a half on the city's side, and the first arch on the Borgo side were incorporated in the bastions and therefore closed. Subsequently, new elements were added: a portal of entry on Borgo Ticino's side (1599), a chapel in the centre of the bridge in honour of
Saint John of Nepomuk
John of Nepomuk (or John Nepomucene) (; ; ) ( 1345 – 20 March 1393)
was a saint of Bohemia (a western part of what is now the Czech Republic) who was drowned in the Vltava river at the behest of King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia. Later accounts st ...
(1746), and lastly a portal of entry, built by Carlo Armati (1822),
[A. Arecchi e G. Calvi, ''Un monumento distrutto del quale si è conservata l'immagine. Il ponte sul Ticino a Pavia'', 2ª ed., Pavia, 1990, pp.58–64 .] on the side of the historic centre. In the registry office in Mezzabarba Palace, seat of the municipality of Pavia, a wooden model of the 14th-century bridge, built in 1938, is displayed.

The
Allied bombings in September 1944 during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
damaged the ancient bridge and destroyed one of its arches. At the end of the war, a debate was opened over the opportunity to fix the old bridge or to demolish it. Due to the fear that any collapse of the bridge could have caused a flood, in February 1948 the
Ministry of Public Works
This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure.
See also
* Public works
* Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...
ordered the demolition of the ancient artifact.
A few remains of the piers of the ancient bridge are still visible in the waters of the river.
20th-century bridge
The construction of the new bridge began in 1949, and its inauguration took place in 1951. An epigraph was placed on the portal of entry on the city's side with the words: ('On the ancient passage of the cerulean river Ticino, in the likeness of the old Ponte Coperto, demolished by the war, the Italian Republic rebuilt').
The bridge was built around further downstream than the previous one, larger and higher. The arches are larger, therefore fewer (five instead of seven). The bridge is also shorter, as it is positioned exactly perpendicular to the river's current. The old one instead followed the line which links Strada Nuova (in the city centre) and Piazzale Ghinaglia (in Borgo Ticino). The changes in the project were aimed at improving the road conditions on the bridge and facilitating the flows of the water of the river.

In 2005, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the death of
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...
, a plaque was placed in the central portion of the bridge. The plaque reads ('I have often thought about that beautiful bridge in Pavia'), a quote from a letter written by the scientist in 1947 to an Italian friend which referred to a period of time Einstein had spent in Pavia when he was 15 years old.
In mass culture
The bridge was shown in a famous scene of the film ''
The Overcoat
"The Overcoat" (, translit. Shinyél’; sometimes translated as "The Cloak" or "The Mantle") is a short story by Nikolai Gogol, published in 1842. The story has had a great influence on Russian literature. Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé, ...
'', by
Alberto Lattuada
Mario Alberto Lattuada (; 13 November 1914 – 3 July 2005) was an Italian film director.
Career
Lattuada was born in Vaprio d'Adda, the son of composer Felice Lattuada. He was initially interested in literature, becoming, while still a studen ...
, depicting the poor clerk Carmine De Carmine, played by
Renato Rascel
Renato Ranucci (; 27 April 1912 – 2 January 1991), known by the stage name Renato Rascel (), was an Italian film actor and singer. He appeared in 50 films between 1942 and 1972. He represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 with t ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coperto
Bridges in Lombardy
Covered bridges in Italy
Deck arch bridges
Ponte
Stone bridges in Italy
Bridges completed in 1951
Tourist attractions in Lombardy