Bridge of Sighs Bridge of Sighs The Bridge of Sighs (Italian and ) is a bridge located in Venice, northern Italy. The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone, has windows with stone bars, passes over the Rio di Palazzo, and connects the New Prison ("Prigioni Nuove") to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. It was designed by Antonio Contino (whose uncle Antonio da Ponte had designed the Rialto Bridge) and was built in 1600. The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge's name, given by Lord Byron as
In Praise of Limestone inferior to the spirit. This interpretation is consistent with Auden's many prose statements about the theological importance of the body. The Karst topography of Auden's birthplace, Yorkshire, also contains limestone. Some readings of the poem have thus taken Auden to be describing his own homeland. Auden makes a connection between the two locales in a letter written from Italy in 1948 to Elizabeth Mayer: "I hadn't realized how like Italy is to my 'Mutterland,' the Pennines". The maternal theme in the poem— <poem> </poem> —is a point of entry into the psychoanalytical interpretation of the poem, in which the limestone