Venetian Bridge Wars
In medieval and early modern Venice a fistfighting culture developed as rival factions arranged mass fights on the bridges over canals.
From 1421 to 1705, rival factions from different parts of Venice fought over control of the bridges in prearranged mass fights, attracting massive crowds of spectators.
In this article I will talk about this crazy phenomenon called the “little battles on the bridges” and “wars of the fists”, how it started, how it looked like, and how it all ended.
First thing I need to note is that at the time, the bridges in Venice had no guard rails and the opponents could be pushed, thrown or knocked out into the canals bellow. This is what made it so fun!
A depiction of Venetian bridge wars by Joseph Heintz the Younger from 1673. Terrible violence ensued as rival factions fought for control of the bridge with their fists!
The origins of these fights could be traced back to late 13th century when controlled battles between three eastern and three western district parishes of Venice began to take place. These were officially inaugurated in 1292 and usually took place between September and Christmas. However things quickly got more violent and in 1349 a battle with sharp sticks was first recorded. From 1421 on, such battles began occurring on bridges. Known as battagliole sui ponti, little battles on the bridges, they exploded in popularity in 15th and 16th centuries. By early 17th century, the sticks were outlawed and the battles for the bridges turned into mass brawls known as guerre di pugni, wars of the fists. This led to development of a “boxing” fighting culture in Venice as these fights were usually accompanied by one-on-one boxing fights called mostre, which took place before the mass brawls on the bridges. Fistfighting skills became necessary to overcome the opponents on the bridges in mass fights as well, resulting in Venetian fighters honing those skills and becoming renowned for them. Bridge fights caused much curiosity and attracted people from elsewhere to attend these spectacles, with some outsiders even trying to test their skills against the Venetian brawlers.