Did You Know?
- Bridge of Sighs
Glasgow's "Bridge of Sighs" originally crossed the Molendinar Burn from the Cathedral to the Necropolis, the first and most famous of Glasgow's cemeteries (inspired by the Père Lachaise graveyard in Paris).
The bridge was built around 1833 to a design by James Hamilton, son of David Hamilton who was one of Glasgow's leading architects in the early part of the 19th century.
The Molendinar (beside which St Mungo had founded his first church around 540AD) was covered by a culvert 40 years after the bridge had been built, but it was still a useful connection over the high ravine. A road now runs over the burn and beneath the bridge.
The Glasgow bridge's title comes from the more famous crossing in Venice. This was popularised by the poet Lord Byron since he believed that it ran from the prison to the rooms of the inquisitors in the Doge's Palace in St Marks Square. However, the Inquisition was over before the bridge was built.
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