Dear Art Lover,
A couple of our friends and colleagues
from the recent Tuscan symposium also had participated in a symposium for wood
carving in the forest near Abetone,
Italy (famous for skiing in the winter, blueberry festival in August). So, quarry owner Marco Nardini took Kumiko
Suzuki and me to this forest in Pian
di Novello, slightly southwest of Abetone.
As we wound through the curvy roads
through the mountains, Marco asked us if we were afraid of heights. We said we were game for what he had in mind
and thus before we arrived to the symposium site, we found ourselves walking
across the “ponte sospeso” (Suspended Bridge) in Comune di San Marcello Pistoiese.
According to a sign on the site once one
crosses the bridge, the longest suspension on a bridge is 1991 meters for the
Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan. It has
intermediate supports that span as much as 282 meters!
Marco told us that when he was a kid, this
footbridge we were on (called the Ironworks
Suspension Bridge) was rope and wood slats, with some of those
missing. It was more terrifyingly
exciting than it is today, although, of course, much more dangerous and
swinging movement. The original bridge
was only intended to be around for a few years.
It was built to aid workers from Popiglio get to the metallurgical plant
of Mammiamo Basso quicker, shaving several kilometers [one way] off of their
daily trip across the river.
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| This sign is in front of a small, unassuming park that contains the entrance to the bridge |
The work was started in
1920, and S.M.L. ordered the plant closed in 1931 to focus manufacturing in
Campotizzoro. However, the bridge was so
admired by all, and the designer Vincenzo
Douglas-Scotti (1877-1937) praised, that the bridge not only remained, but
was recreated in the materials one sees today. In 1980 it was reworked and
again improved in 2004. In 2014, solar-powered
LED lights were added, making the bridge more beautiful.
A quote from one of the
signs there:
“The Area of the Suspension Bridge
Since
prehistoric times, the valley of the Lima torrent, the greatest tributary of the
Serchio River, represented a route for penetrating and crossing the Apennines
by nomad hunters and later Roman armies or medieval travelers. The flat areas, now dominated by the suspension
bridge, offered an ideal place for resting or camping, which is evidenced by
the recent archaeological finds of worked flints dating back to the
Epigravettian period (late epipaleolithic – about 9/10,000 years before Christ
and ceramic fragments from the Roman Age, which are now preserved in the
Naturalistic Archaeological Centre of the Pistoia Apennine, based in
Campotizzoro and the Civic Museum of Natural Sciences and Archaeology of Val di
Nievole.
At that
time the Lima torrent, like the Limestre torrent and the other main tributaries
offered ideal conditions for setting up numerous hydraulic plants. Think of the mills built to transform chestnuts
into sweet flour, the main local foodstuff, and the pioneering Cini paper mills
and many ironworks.
The Magona Granducale, a Tuscan company
regulated by a monopolistic regime for the production of iron in 1704, started
with building the plants of Mammiano Basso, which soon became the largest
production center in the area of Pistoia.
When
Magona was abolished in 1836, the production of iron and steel in Mammiano
continued despite the subsequent numerous transfers of the structures, which
finally ended up at the S.M.I. (Italian Metallurgical Company) at the end of
the nineteenth century.
It was
during this period that the engineer Vicenzo Douglas-Scotti, who designed the
bridge, was called upon to manage the plant.
Today, the area continues to be of great interest for its hydroelectric
production, which is also implemented by using part of the canalizations and
pipes that were originally created for the Magona plants.”
The Ironworks
Suspension Bridge is free to walk across and admire the views.
Peace,
Kelly
P.S. I woke this morning to an e-mail from my
father asking if I was safe from the earthquake. I was unaware of another one in Italy. It occurred during the night last night and
it looks devastating. It was south of
Tuscany, but tremendous. As I write
this, rescue workers are still searching to save anyone under the rubbish that
they can.
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| Marco and Kumiko enjoy the Ironworks Suspended Bridge |
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