The inscriptions (1933) originally decorated the Ponte Littorio (Lictorian Bridge) in Pescara. The Italian adjective ‘littorio’ derives from the Latin lictorius, that in Roman times referred to the lictores, officials who carried the fasces as a symbol of the magistrates’ authority. During the ventennio, the term became a synonym of ‘Fascist’, both in Italian and in Latin. The author of the inscriptions was Domenico Tinozzi, who was at that time the first president of the Province of Pescara, established few years before, in 1927. The bridge was destroyed by the German army in retreat from the city in June 1944.

The inscriptions were carved and retraced with colouring (‘rubricated’) on the basements of four columns, each one placed in correspondence of a bridge’s pylon and bearing a bronze eagle on the top by the sculptor Renato Brozzi (1885–1963) (and not Ernesto, as he is called in Fago 1935: 21).

Each inscription forms an elegiac couplet. The first one underlines the bridge's role in linking the city of Pescara with Castellamare Adriatico, divided by the river Pescara. These two towns were autonomous until 1927, when they merged into a single city named Pescara. The newly formed city also became the capital of a new province. The second inscription rhetorically presents the bridge as an auspicious gift of love from Mussolini to the city and its inhabitants. The third connects the present to the ancient past: Pescara, renewed by Mussolini’s efforts, is presented as the main town of the Sabellians, an ancient Italic people assigned the role of guarding the Mediterranean Sea. The expression mare nostrum is notable. It began appearing in propaganda starting from the Libya campaign in 1911. During the Fascist era, it was used more frequently. The term aimed to convey the idea that the Mediterranean was exclusively an Italian sea, evoking memories of ancient times when it was under Roman control (Tosi 2017: no. 1600). The fourth inscription celebrates the river Pescara and the poetry of D’Annunzio, known as Il Vate (‘The Bard’). He was born in Pescara in 1863. The link between D’Annunzio and this river also appears in the inscription over the entrance of City Hall, built at the northern head of the bridge in 1935. Tinozzi authored this inscription as well. It reads: Ave dulce Vatis flumen, / ave vetus urbis numen (‘Hail Bard’s sweet river, hail city’s ancient divinity’).

Tinozzi freely translated the couplets for the Ponte Littorio into Italian in blank tercets: 1) ‘Le membra omai de le città gemelle / unisce il ponte che Littorio ha nome, / quattro aquile ne son fiere custodi’; 2) ‘S’erge pegno gratissimo d’amore / del magnanimo Duce al Popol nostro / e fausto auspicio di concordia ai cuori’; 3) ‘Pescara che già fu de le sabelliche / genti emporio ed onor, rinnovellata, / or è del nostro Mar vigile scolta’; 4) ‘Col lene mormorio delle sue onde / questo fiume ricanta i puri carmi / che ispirar seppe al suo Poeta alato’ (Fago 1935: 21).

The bridge was the designed by the Roman architect Cesare Bazzani (1873–1939) to replace the iron one built between 1890 and 1893. Its construction, started in May 1931, ended on 26 July 1933. It was inaugurated on the following 14 August. In July 1935, four bronze reclining female statues by Nicola D’Antino (1880–1966) were installed on the central parapets. These statues represented Mountain, Sea, River, and Plain and together symbolized the natural resources of the Abruzzi region. After the destruction of Bazzini’s bridge, a new one, the current Ponte Risorgimento, was built in 1946. It replicates the structure of the previous bridge but with simplified forms.

Bibliography

Fago, Nicola. 1935. ‘Il Ponte «Littorio» sul Pescara a Pescara’. Annali dei lavori pubblici 73 (1): 6–23.

Tosi, Renzo. 2017. Dizionario delle sentenze latine e greche. Milan: Rizzoli.

Antonino Nastasi