Ponte Sisto

Ponte Sisto is a footbridge in Rome's historic centre, spanning the river Tiber. It connects Via del Pettinari in the Rione of Regola to Piazza Trilussa in Trastevere. The current bridge was built by Pope Sixtus IV between 1473 and 1479.

The bridge is architecturally characteristic because of its central circular "eye". It connects the popular night-life areas near Campo de' Fiori and Trastevere and has become part of popular culture and recently featured in films, music videos, and adverts.

The Ponte Sisto connects the lively and Popular Piazza Trilussa in Trastevere, where many young Romans gather for an apperitivo on a Friday night, with the via Pettinary and via Giulia in Campo Marte.

On the corner of via Pettinari and via Giulia once stood a fountain, a work of the Acqua Paola Aqueduct, the water of which was brought over the bridge from the Transtiberim to the Campo Marte via Ponte Sisto.

After the Unification of Italy in 1870, the buildings surrounding this fountain were destroyed, and the fountain itself relocated to Piazza Trilussa on the other side of the bridge, where it delivers water to this day.

The predecessor bridge to Ponte Sisto, the PONS AURELIUS was first mentioned by authors in the fourth and fifth centuries and was later known in the Middle Ages as PONS ANTONINUS, PONS ANTONINI IN ARENULA, PONS IANICULARIS ID EST PONS RUPTUS VULGARITER NOMINATUS ET TREMULUS ET ANTONINUS.

The PONS ANTONINUS was partially destroyed in 772 and rebuilt in its current form by Pope Sixtus IV, after whom it is still named to this day.