Special opening of the Royal Ferdinand Bridge

Sunday, December 21, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Special opening of the Ponte Real Ferdinando bridge in Minturno, located on the Garigliano River, which marks the border between Lazio and Campania. Not just a walk, then, but a real journey through space, starting in Lazio and arriving in Campania, and through time, with the many stories that the bridge has to tell.

The Bourbon Bridge over the Garigliano Real Ferdinando is the first suspension bridge on iron chains in continental Europe, built between 1828 and 1832 based on a design by engineer Luigi Giura.
A multifaceted and distinguished example of the modernity of the Bourbon government from an engineering, architectural, and artistic point of view (with Egyptian-style columns and sphinxes, evidence of the Egyptomania associated with the first excavations in Egypt), it is also a product of the industrial policy of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
In the first half of the 19th century, the bridge was built to provide a direct crossing of the river, replacing the ancient scafa (a river boat connected to a rope between the two banks), to allow for the easy continuation of the journey along the Appian Way and the reconnection with the site of the Roman city of Minturnae, where the Bourbons had begun archaeological excavations at the end of the 18th century.
The bridge, as a road structure, is also a silent witness to the final act of the unification of Italy under the new Savoy Kingdom (Battle of Garigliano, October 29–November 2, 1860), before the siege of Gaeta and its dramatic end on February 13, 1861, and the fierce battles along the Gustav Line at the end of World War II, which saw the destruction of the deck on October 14, 1943.

Archaeological Park of Minturnae and Ponte Real Ferdinando (Minturno, LT)
Via Ferdinando Borbone snc
+39 0771 680093
drm-laz.minturno@cultura.gov.it