Ponte delle Torri in Spoleto - Fortilizio dei Mulini

A guided tour around Spoleto in Umbria, Italy.

View of the Ponte delle Torri. It was closed for repairs, and had scaffolding on it.

The view from Belvedere on Via Gattaponi.

The Ponte delle Torri is an arch bridge derived from a Roman aqueduct located in Spoleto .

The structure crosses the course of the Tessino torrent and reconnects what the tectonic activity and the linear erosion of the torrent have divided.

At the two ends of the bridge there are two fortresses, the Rocca Albornoziana and the Fortilizio dei Mulini , built to watch over the bridge and active as a mill until the 19th century . The name Ponte delle Torri could allude to the towers of the two fortresses or to the appearance of the pylons.

It rises on nine mighty arches, is 230 meters long and 80 high. The maximum dimensions of some pillars at the base are 10 x 12 metres. Pylons and arches do not have constant measurements: the pillars towards Monteluco are more massive than the others and are reinforced by arches placed about halfway up their height; the space between the arches is also different, smaller than the corresponding ones towards Sant'Elia. Their diversity suggests that they were built in different periods. The two pylons rising from the bottom of the valley are empty and practicable, inside some rooms that served as guard posts, with windows and access doors located a few meters from the ground; over time they have been a safe diurnal and seasonal refuge for various bats.

Above the structure stands a wall about 12 meters high which delimits the road above the bridge for its entire length; on its top in a dug canal, the water flowed, coming from the aqueducts of Cortaccione and Patrico, which supplied the city. Originally it was completely closed, only in 1845 was the panoramic central window opened by the gonfaloniere Parenzi; the parapet in front, however, about one meter high, was built at the end of the 19th century.

A recess in the wall, a niche formerly intended for the surveillance of the aqueduct, also had other uses: when Spoleto had the customs belt made up of the medieval walls , it was used as a guardhouse for the tax collector.

At the eastern end of the bridge, near the Fortilizio dei Mulini, a pedestrian path called Giro dei Condotti begins, which leads to ancient hermitages and extends across the slope of Monteluco, offering breathtaking views and luxuriant and varied vegetation. Its walking surface covers the ancient pipes of the Patrico aqueduct built in 1891.

Fortilizio dei Mulini

The Fortilizio dei Mulini is an impervious turreted building located in Spoleto , at the end of the Ponte delle Torri towards Monteluco . The Giro dei Condotti and other paths towards the Spoleto mountains start from here. Although reduced to a dilapidated ruin, it is part of the most famous and characteristic panorama of the city.

The main function of the fort was surveillance: a watchtower that watched over the road above the bridge, easy to beat and target from above. At the other extreme, surveillance was guaranteed by one of the six sturdy towers of the mighty fortress, the Rocca Albornoziana . The perfect alignment between this and the fort, made it possible to easily communicate any dangers through smoke or fire signals, or flag-waving.

Another important function was that of a grain mill . In fact, the fort represented the point of confluence of two aqueducts, that of Cortaccione and that coming from Patrico . Before crossing the channel over the bridge, the water poured into two large tanks called Rifolta adapted inside the fortress since the fourteenth century. Flowing into the Rifolta , the waters with their fall activated the millstones of a municipal mill which remained in operation until the end of the nineteenth century , then abandoned after the construction of the new aqueduct in 1894.

Other old southern aqueducts continued to pour into the Rifolta , but the descent of their waters, no longer having to feed the mill, became a suggestive set of waterfalls.

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Taken in: Italy / Umbria / Spoleto / Ducato di Spoleto (show map)

Taken on: May 15, 2023

Tags:

Spoleto

Umbria

province of Perugia

tree

trees

Ponte delle torri

Belvedere

Via Gattaponi

Roman aqueduct

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Longobards in Italy. Places of the power (568-774 A.D.)

Scaffolding

Fortilizio dei Mulini

Fort of the Mills

tower « less

Sets appears in: • Ponte delle torri, Spoleto • Spoleto

Groups appears in: • Towers • Towers of the World more » • " AMAZING TREES " « less

Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ72, f/5.0, 1/250 sec, 20mm, ISO 250 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-FZ72
Aperture:	f/5.0
Exposure Time:	0.004 sec (1/250)
Focal Length:	20mm
ISO:	250
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	High gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Elements 18.0 (Windows)
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