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The oldest evidence of a bridge in this area dates from 1560. It was a mule bridge. With French Corsica, a technical solution was developed to widen the passage. The Ponte Novu kept this aspect until the Second World War, before being dynamited. The building is classified as a Historic Monument.

In 1531, in his description of Corsica, Agostino Giustiniani states that eight stone bridges span the Golo. At that time, the Ponte Novu (the new bridge) had not yet been built. The oldest references to the existence of a "new bridge" in this place date back to the 1560's. Originally very sober, it consisted of five arches and a humpback deck. However, the bridge was very narrow and of good size. It was a mule bridge, which simply had to allow two mules to cross. It was in this first state that the bridge witnessed the battle of 1769. A few years after Corsica became part of the Kingdom of France, the new authorities deplored the narrowness of the Golu and Tavignanu bridges, which handicapped the movement of troops and the circulation of military carriages. A technical solution was then developed by the army engineers. In order to widen the passage, without doubling the thickness of the bridge, the parapets were demolished and rebuilt outside the deck. The masonry railings were then placed on a series of rampant basket-handle arches resting on ashlar brackets. The decorative effect produced by the elegant arches evokes an ornamental frieze rather than a functional device. This ingenious, economical and aesthetic solution was then applied to other structures, such as the bridges of Altiani, Ponte à a Leccia and Francardu. The work was undertaken under the reign of Louis XVI, between 1778 and 1780, on the orders of the Intendant, Claude-François de Boucheporn. They finally allowed large carriages to use the bridges and small ones to cross them. The Ponte Novu kept this aspect until the Second World War. On 9 September 1943, the bridge deck was dynamited in order to cut off the road and slow down the progress of the tanks of the 90th German Panzer Division. In 2007 the ruins of the bridge were restored and stabilised by the Corsican Territorial Collectivity.

Castello-di-Rostino

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