Ponte dell’Ammiraglio

The story

The bridge was built around 1131 at the behest of George of Antioch, admiral of Roger II, to link the city with the gardens and estates beyond the river Oreto. Twelve pointed stone arches, with piers protected by cutwaters: a piece of Norman engineering that has held up for nine centuries.

On 27 May 1860 it was the scene of the clash between Garibaldi’s Thousand and Bourbon troops before they entered the city through Porta Termini. The episode is remembered in the name of the street leading to it, corso dei Mille.

In 1938 the Oreto was diverted and the bridge was left high and dry in the middle of a garden. Since 2015 it has been part of the UNESCO site Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale.

Why it is worth it

A bridge without a river has something surreal about it: you cross it on foot above a lawn and realise how long it is and how the arches rise towards the middle. Look at the stones of the piers, cut to a point to break a current that no longer exists. It is off the tourist routes, and precisely for that reason it stays with you as a piece of real Palermo.