There is an update about the liberation of Florence occurred on August 11 1944, during World War II.
It is well known that the nazis, on the night of August 3 1944, mined all the five bridges (Ponte San Niccolò, Ponte alle Grazie, Ponte Santa Trinita, Ponte alla Carraia, Ponte alla Vittoria), to prepare their retreat from Florence.
Only Ponte Vecchio was saved.
It has been argued that the nazis chose to save Ponte Vecchio from destruction since it was Hitler’s favorite bridge (lieblingsbruecke) [2] [3].
Moreover, mining Ponte Vecchio would have been useless because, once collapsed, it would have been possible to cross the river anyway, due to the huge amount of ruins it would produce in the water.
But now a new book provides a different account of the facts [1]. It seems that the nazis mined Ponte Vecchio, but a citizen called Burgassi (nicknamed Burgasso), knowing where the electrical wires had been placed (in via de’ Ramaglianti), demined the bridge.
The story is indeed interesting but the doubt remains.
References:
[1] Di Pietra e d’Oro – Il Ponte Vecchio di Firenze sette secoli di storia e di arte, Maria Cristina de Montmayor, 2016.
[2] L. Giannelli, M. Tarassi, “Operazione Feuerzauber – La tragica estate 1944”, Scramasax, 2014.
[3] G. Festerle, B. Rock, C. Tauber, Italien in Aneignung und Widerspruch, De Gruyter, 2013.
