The Haunted Bridge

Anything can be haunted--a house, a ship, a battlefield, even a bridge. In Rome, Italy, the bridge known as Ponte Sisto that spans the Tiber River was said to be haunted in the seventeenth century.

On certain dark nights people walking along the bridge were startled closer. But these were no ordinary flesh-and-blood horses. They were beasts from beyond the grave. Hardly daring to breathe, the terrified mortals watched as a black coach came into view.

Hellfires seemed to surround the coach, and the black horses raced like demons. Riding inside the blazing coach, a shriveled old woman with eyes as cold as death clutched two bags of gold.

Some people believed the old woman was the ghost of Olimpia Maidalchini Pamfili, sister-in-law of Innocent X, the Pope of the Catholic church from 1644-1655. When Olimpia married the Pope’s elder brother, Pamfilio, she brought great wealth from her aristocratic family into the Pamfili family. At that time Innocent X, then known as Giambattista, had not become Pope. He was only a lowly cleric. From her own funds Olimpia gave him the money he needed to gain higher positions in the Catholic church. This made him feel obligated to her throughout his life. When her husband died, Olimpia, who was ambitious and domineering, took advantage of her position with Innocent X.

For many years she was considered the most powerful woman in Italy because of her influence on the Pope. Innocent X never made any important decisions without consulting her. Princes, bishops, and ambassadors sent her gifts in order to be assured they could see the Pope. Olimpia’s greed was known throughout Europe, yet no one dared ignore her. Some even called Papessa, which meant female pope.

Gossips of the day spread that Olimpia and the Pope were more than brother-and sister-in-law-they were lovers. The Catholic church denied it, and no one believed she really loved him. She was, they said, only interested in the wealth he obtained from the church.

In those days the Catholic church controlled a great deal of money and land and was more powerful than most of Europe’s governments. Popes customarily appointed members of their family to high offices in the church and loaded them with wealth and favors, sometimes to a scandalous extent. So it was that Olimpia built a great fortune at the expense of the papacy, but she was greedy for more.

According to legend, as Pope Innocent X lay dying of illness and old age, Olimpia sat beside his bed, waiting for him to take his last breath. As soon as he died, she stole two boxes of gold from under his bed. She told no one that he was dying and offered him no comfort in his final hours. She wouldn’t even pay for a wooden casket for his burial, claiming she was a poor widow.

After Olimpia died, the ghostly coach with its phantom rider and demon horses began to appear on the Ponte Sisto bridge. People believed that the fiery coach ride was Olimpia’s punishment for the cold, hurtful way she had treated her brother-in-law. "When the coach stops," they said, "Donna Olimpia will be in hell."

No one ever saw the coach stop. It always crossed the bridge, went down the bank, and disappeared into the river.