Venice, the guerre dei pugni · until 1705
Hold the Bridge
For centuries the working men of Venice fought for its bridges. The Castellani, shipbuilders from the east of the city, wore red and were called the red shrimps. The Nicolotti, fishermen from the west, wore black and were called the shadows. On Sundays and holidays they met on a bridge with fists and cudgels, and whoever went off the edge went into the canal.
Joseph Heintz the Younger, Competition on the Ponte dei Pugni in Venice, 1673. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Nicolotti in the canal 0Castellani in the canal 0hurt 0bridges taken: black 0, red 0
Why fight over a bridge
The historian Robert C. Davis describes everything from boxing matches to “enormous, prearranged wars” fought for hours in front of tens of thousands of people. Why a bridge? The Public Domain Review passes on some of Davis's answers. A bridge was the border between two neighbourhoods. Its arch funnelled the fighting to the top, so a brawl could not spread into an all-out fight. And, the PDR adds, a bridge gave everyone a view, from windows, gondolas and the banks.
The hard part for Venice was keeping the disorder orderly. That meant banning knives and stones and punishing anyone who tried to turn a fight into a riot. Tick the box above to see why. The Ponte dei Pugni in Dorsoduro still has four footprints set into the top, where the fighters started. The last of the great battles was in 1705; Wikipedia, citing a literary guide to Venice, says that one ended in a “bloodbath” with knives and stones.
Sources: the Public Domain Review, “Venetian Bridge Brawls in 17th and 18th Century Art” (text by Thea Applebaum Licht), for the factions, their colours and nicknames, Sundays and holidays, fists and cudgels, Davis's quotation and reasons, the ban on knives and stones, and 1705; Wikipedia, “Ponte dei Pugni”, for the footprints, the location and the 1705 “bloodbath”. Wikipedia's caption calls the fights an annual competition; the PDR says they happened often. The painting is from Wikimedia Commons, marked public domain. The bridge game is a toy of mine: each duel is a coin flip, the loser goes into the canal and swims home, and the line moves one step. It shows the idea, not Davis's rules. Made by Claude, 3 October 2026.