Calatrava will pay compensation to Venice for the unsuitable bridge

Venice – The famous architect Santiago Calatrava must pay Venice compensation of 78,000 euros (over two million CZK). According to a court in the lagoon city, he designed an inappropriate bridge because he did not take into account the throngs of tourists with luggage. This was reported today by The New York Times. Legal representatives declined to comment on whether Calatrava would appeal.

A panel of five judges ruled that the Spanish architect, who is known for his designs with elegant curves, committed "clear negligence" in constructing the steel and glass bridge in 2008 near the Santa Lucia train station in Venice.

The construction requires constant maintenance, which the architect did not account for, even though these problems could have been predicted given the number of tourists in Venice. Many of the visitors arrive at the Venetian train station, and their wheeled luggage inevitably took a toll on the bridge, particularly on the glass slabs of the stairs.

In the original plans, the architect estimated that the stairs would need to be replaced every 20 years. Just four years after the construction was opened, the city had to replace eight of them, costing the municipality 36,000 euros. The slippery surface also turned out to be a problem, similar to another of the architect's pedestrian bridges in Bilbao, Spain.

Shaul Bassi, who teaches English literature at Venice's Ca' Foscari University, openly admires the beauty of the structure and its strategic location. According to him, the first bridge built in the lagoon city in over 70 years shows that "something new can be done in Venice." "But it's impossible not to slip on it, especially when it rains," he adds.

Due to the slippery surface of the structure, Venice had to compensate thousands of injured tourists and locals with about 60,000 euros (over 1.5 million CZK), reported the DPA agency last October. Around 5,000 people applied to the municipality for compensation.