A fleeting dream in the Eternal City: a cardboard bridge over the Tiber

The 18-meter structure suspended by three balloons six meters in diameter inflated with helium was inaugurated Tuesday evening in the presence of the mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, and the French ambassador, Christian Masset.

It will symbolically cross the river for a few days and connect the two palaces of the august Roman dynasty: on the left bank, the Farnese palace, on the right bank, the Villa Farnesina.

From July 8, dozens of little hands began to assemble the different parts of the bridge, which will be dismantled on July 18 and whose components will be recycled. This ephemeral site in the Eternal City is participatory: 120 people, children, parents, students, young and old have measured, cut out, glued, taped ...

Olivier Grossetête is a past master in the art of hanging monumental ephemeral structures. In 2019, he paid homage to another Italian genius, Leonardo da Vinci, by installing a ... cardboard bridge at the foot of the Château d'Amboise (Indre-et-Loire, central France).

"The technical challenge here is to suspend the bridge over a river, that is to say above the current. And the wind is my anxiety", explained the artist to the 'AFP.

Michelangelo's dream

Michelangelo had imagined a passage between the two Roman residences of the Farnese family but the project, complex and expensive, had been abandoned after the death of Pope Paul III (1534-1549), born Alexander Farnese in 1468.

This project is part of the major renovation works of the Palazzo Farnese, in particular the interior facades and the roof.

Located in the historic heart of the Eternal City, a stone's throw from Campo di Fiori square, the Farnese Palace was commissioned by Alexander Farnese and entrusted to the architect Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, then pursued by Michelangelo to his death. of the pontiff.

Richly furnished, adorned with exceptional paintings, sculptures and tapestries, the palace houses two places of singular beauty: the Carracci Gallery, a collection of frescoes on the loves of the gods inspired by Raphael and Michelangelo, and the Hall the Fastes, whose coffered ceiling and frescoes by Salviati serve as the framework for the ambassador's personal office.

A bridge between France and Italy

France had bought the palace in 1911. An affront to Mussolini who recovered it but left it in usufruct to France by signing in 1936 an emphyteutic lease of 99 years for the symbolic sum of one lira per year in return for ... the expensive building maintenance.

As for the Farnesina villa, originally Palazzo Chigi designed by Baldassarre Peruzzi and decorated by Raphaël and his school, it was acquired around 1580 by ... Alexandre Farnese himself, who gave it its name. The villa now houses the Academy of the Lynceans, the oldest scientific academy in Europe.

The bridge also takes on a symbolic character of Franco-Italian harmony after years of tension between Paris and Rome which culminated in February 2019 with the meeting between Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi di Maio and yellow vests, leading Paris to temporarily recall. its ambassador.

"The extremely successful state visit by President [Italian Sergio] Mattarella [a few days ago in Paris] showed the strength of friendship and this bridge is there to remind us. If the bridge is ephemeral, friendship is indestructible, "Christian Masset told AFP.