Bridge of Sighs

The Bridge was commissioned by the Doge Marino Grimani, whose coat of arms it bears, in 1602, to connect Palazzo Ducale to the building of the New Prisons.

Built in white Istrian stone, it completely hides two corridors separated by a wall that connect the Prisons, one directed to the Magistrates' Rooms located on the main floor of the Ducal Palace, the other to the Avogaria Rooms and the Parlatory.

Each corridor is then connected to the service staircase that leads from the Pozzi to the Piombi. By popular tradition, it is said that the Bridge of Sighs has this name because condemned people or prisoners awaiting trial passed through it, who could see the light of day and the beautiful panorama of the basin and the lagoon for the last time, thus sighing for the terrible detention that awaited them in the very harsh cells of the Serenissima.