By: Lia Contesso
Submitted: 2010-04-21 05:55:12 | Word Count: 533
Arminium’s birth is due to its beach, that hosted its first citizens; going a bit further, we can see it transformed into a Roman city, garnished with constructions that we can still admire: the Augustus Arch, the most ancient Arch remained intact. This arch owes its origin to Augustus’ “pacifist” politic: it was too big to have a door, which was considered useless because the arch was not intended to be a defence for the city, but just an entrance; thus, no door was thought be built to defend the city in case of attack. The swallowtails on the upper part have obviously been added afterwards, in the X century.
The Tiberius Bridge as well dates back to the Roman Empire: its construction begun in 14 A.C., during Augustus reign, and ended in 21 A.C., with Tiberius. It’s also known as the “Devil’s bridge”, because of a story telling that the two holes that can be seen on its upper part were made by the Devil himself. A more logical thought, as it often happens, gives us another vision of the things: those holes were used to secure the pulleys used to charge the boats that stopped under the bridge. It often happens as well, though, that some things happen to go beyond the logical approach, though the latter is the most realistic: Rimini’s “Devil’s bridge”, though it’s been aimed by various Nazi attacks and many Panzers passed on it, is still there, unharmed...
Leaving traditions and superstitions, let’s continue our tour through the city: the “Tempio Malatestiano”, or Duomo, has been referred to in some IX century documents; many changes though have been made for SigismondoPandolfoMalatesta, Lord of Rimini in the XV century – hence the name “Malatesta Temple”. The denomination of “temple” is due to the fact that in 1460 Sigismondo was excommunicated by Pope Pius II, and afterwards he decided to make a substantial change in the building that, until then, had been the Santa Maria in Trivio Church: he decided it to become his family’s sepulchre. He ordered all the religious symbols to be removed: no crosses, no saints, but four lateral chapels dedicated to the muses, the zodiac, the innocents and the children’s games, and other two dedicated to himself and to his companion, Isotta. “S” and “I”, in fact, are repeated everywhere in the temple, almost obsessively, to remind their love – or, as some say, to remind only Sigismondo with the first two letters of his name...anyway, looking at the temple from the outside, you will notice that it looks incomplete: a grand dome was projected to be in the centre of the construction, big at least as Florence’, but Malatesta’s money came to an end, and so did the work in progress.
There
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are many other beauties in Rimini, all to be discovered; but the cultural visits in the many monuments of the city should be alternated with some party nights in the as many nightclubs!
