Ponte San Lorenzo

45.4061111.87787Koordinaten: 45 ° 24 ' 22 " N, 11 ° 52' 40.3 " E

F1

Via San Francesco

Bacchiglione

The Ponte San Lorenzo is a Roman segmental arch bridge in Padua (Italy). The bridge located in the historic center, for centuries in a remarkable, built by surrounding buildings condition. Architecture History The Ponte San Lorenzo is one of the first segmental arch bridges in the world and because of the unsurpassed in antiquity slender pillars of paramount importance. The building was built in 47-30 BC.

Location

The Ponte San Lorenzo was in the Roman Padua is one of four bridges which led over the Medoacus, today Bacchiglione. The three-arched bridge is located in Via San Francesco, where it is largely framed on both sides by buildings that have drawn over the centuries moved closer to the estuary. Only the eastern arc as he spanned the constrained river bed was still visible in large part to the middle of the 20th century, as was the rest channel, today's street Riviera del Ponti Romani filled. The intact arches of the bridge have been preserved under the modern pavement and can be visited at fixed opening times. Earthworks 1773 and 1938, in which parts of the bridge were exposed temporarily, have been used for more archaeological investigations.

Interestingly, located in Padua, two other Roman bridges in an installed state: the location in Via San Francesco Ponte Corbo and completely inaccessible Ponte Altinate. Both buildings also rest on segmental arches, as well as the unearthly Ponte Molino. The fifth bridge is the ancient city situated near the church of the same name Ponte S. Matteo.

Construction

The Ponte San Lorenzo is 53.30 m long and 8.35 m wide. Using a bridge inscription can be their edification to the period 47-30 Narrow BC. Through her for the ancient bridge exceptionally flat segmental arches and very slender pillars is of particular techno-historical interest. Its three arches have spans of 12.8 m, 14.4 m and 12.5 m, the 3.7 times the chord height equal to or in other words a segment of a circle of 113 ° describes. Thus, the Ponte San Lorenzo on a much lower profile than the normally preferred by Roman bridge builders semicircular arch bridges (180 °).

Pillar widths Roman bridges varied - as far investigated - between one-half and one-fifth of the span; narrow pillars reduce the risk of undermining by offering less resistance to the flow. The piers of the Ponte San Lorenzo are 1.72 meters wide, which corresponds to only one-eighth of the span of the central arch. Such small pillar strengths were achieved again until the High Middle Ages.