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Thanks to an evening dedicated to the history of Badia a Passignano, in the municipality of Tavarnelle – organised by the historian Francesco Biccu – we’ve learned about a small bridge that crosses the stream Rimaggio, along the ancient Via Romea.
“This bridge – explains Francesco – is really special. We can still identify the Etruscan foundations, and the part of the structure that dates back to Roman times. The curve of the arch is typical of Medieval humpback bridges”.
“This bridge – explains Francesco – is really special. We can still identify the Etruscan foundations, and the part of the structure that dates back to Roman times. The curve of the arch is typical of Medieval humpback bridges”.
“On one side of the bridge – he explains – there used to be a stele (standing stone) with the coat of arms of Badia a Passignano, with the “P” and the Bishop staff. On the other side there was a taller and wider stele with a Latin inscription”.
Unfortunately, the two steles are gone. A few years ago, when Francesco Biccu noticed that the steles went missing, he tried to recover them in the stream bed during a drought.
But he didn’t never found them (it’s likely that a collector had taken them unlawfully). We recently went to see the current condition of the bridge, which is easy to inspect as the river bed is currently dry.
It’s in urgent need of maintenance. The vegetation grows in between the ancient stones; a large tree has its roots at the base of the parapet, and more than half of the paved floor is covered in soil.
The road that leads to the bridge is almost impassable, and we found a few bundles of abandoned cables, partly buried in the woods and extremely dangerous for both humans and animals.
Sadly, history teaches us that if in ancient times bridges were built to last for centuries, today we respect neither nature nor our heritage.
Antonio Taddei
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