Ponte del Paradiso

According to Nuova encyclopedia Italiana:^[3] "[its] called because the patrician Paradiso family owned some houses in the area". Instead, the historian Tassini^[4] mentions the "patrician Paradiso family" but also remembers that it did not appear to own buildings in the area. Sources such as ASVE^[5](1937), Sanudo^[6](1970) and Bellavitis ^[7] cite the birth of another rich Paradiso family in this city, now descended from Jewish converts such as Marco Paradiso and his son Francesco Paradiso (Jacob Meshulam and Saloman Meshulam).^[8]

Above the bridge's southern doorway lies the Arco del Paradiso, also referred to as The Madonna Arch, is a carefully sculptured Gothic-style arch depicting a Madonna at whose feet rests a friar and a couple on the canal side and inward side respectively. To either side are the arms of the Mocenigo and Foscari families, likely commemorating a marriage between the two in 1491.^[9]

The arch was previously in poor condition until a restoration project led by UNESCO lasting from 1993 until 1994.

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45°26′17″N 12°20′02″E / 45.4380°N 12.3338°E / 45.4380; 12.3338