Isolo Taberni

According to the tour guide, who was chattering on as I was sitting at the foot of the monument of St. Bartolomeo, legend says that an Etruscan barge got stuck at this spot in the middle of the river and began to collect debris creating the island.  It is, as he continued, just a legend.  The island is a natural formation, a deposit of alluvial sand carried down and settling here where the river bends.

Pons Cestius with the hospital in the background

The island was host to several temples, the earliest, and perhaps, the most important was that of “Aesculapius, the Greek god of healing.”  :The decision to build the temple on the island, so the story goes, was made by one of the god’s sacred snakes who jumped off the boat as it came up river and swam ashore there.” (Claridge, 226)  It is appropriate, then, that a large and hospital sits on the island’s upriver side.

Pons Fabricius

Two bridges connect the island with the mainland; the Pons Cestius and the Pons Fabricius.  The Pons Cestius was re-fabricated in 1886-89 when the river embankment was widened but its central arch dates back to antiquity.  The Pons Fabricius dates from 62 BCE and was built by the commissioner of roads, Lucius Fabricius, and is the oldest bridge in the city.  The two bridges, flanking either side of the  island, give the island the look of a boat with its oars outstretched above the water.  A creative 2^nd century CE carver even created in stone a replica of a ship’s prow to emphasize the nautical nature of the island’s shape.

Just upriver from Tiber Island is another bridge-the Ponte Sisto.  The original bridge at this location was built in 211 by then emperor Marcus Aurelius to join the mainland with Trastevere.  The bridge went through several restorations but was finally left in ruins because of flooding after 791.  In 1475 Pope Sixtus IV rebuilt it on the ruins of the Roman bridge.  Its most prominent feature is the perfectly circular hole in the center.  It was placed there to allow water to flow through the bridge when the river was high.

The dome in the background is St. Peter's