Alidosi Bridge

The bridge has stood on the Santerno river for more than five hundred years. A masterpiece of civil engineering, it has a striking schiena d’asino humpback design with a single 42-metre arch and an aboveriver height of 19 metres. Commissioned by Obizzo Alidosi in 1499, its construction was assigned to Mastro Andrea Gurrieri for five hundred gold ducats. The bridge symbolises the family’s power and solidity.

Construction lasted several years, boosting the economy of the Santerno Valley and making Castel del Rio a key marketplace for agricultural produce and livestock. The bridge has five inner rooms, probably built for structural purposes and to allow the guards to collect taxes and store goods. 

It has been renovated several times, the most important works being those of 1715, 1862 and 2011. Proclaimed a national monument in 1897, the recently renovated rooms and outer structure have restored the bridge to its original magnificence.