The historian solved the riddle of “La Gioconda” by Leonardo da Vinci

The Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the world’s most famous works of art, renowned for its beauty as well as the mystery surrounding the identity of the great Renaissance artist’s model and the place painted behind the mysteriously smiling Mona Lisa.

The village of Ponte Buriano, a suburb of Arezzo in the Italian region of Tuscany that has been a source of controversy for centuries, is so convinced that the bridge behind the Mona Lisa is Ponte Buriano that they have made it a key element of their local tourism campaign, even claiming the bridge on the outskirts of the village by placing a welcome sign, tells CNN.

But now historian Silvano Vincheti claims that the bridge behind the Mona Lisa is actually the Romito Bridge in the nearby Tuscan town of Laterina.

“The characteristic shape of the Arno river in this area corresponds to what Leonardo depicted in the landscape to the left of the woman depicted in the famous painting,” Vincheti told a press conference at the Foreign Press Association in Rome.

Vincheti also made a virtual reconstruction of the bridge to show the resemblance and used documents from the Florence State Archives.

Mona Lisa was painted in the early 16th century, CNN recalls. As Vinseti found out, between 1501 and 1503 Da Vinci lived with Cardinal Cesare Borgia near Laterina. The bridge was used and had four arches – as shown in the picture.

On the other hand, according to Vincheti, the Buriano bridge has six arches, and the Ponte Bobbio, the bridge in Piacenza, which, according to some sources, is depicted in the picture, has more than six arches.

The Romito bridge connected Arezzo, Fiesole and Florence, but is now in ruins. Vincheti said he studied riverbanks, ruins and drone photos over the years to determine that “the Etruscan-Roman bridge of Romito is unmistakably visible” in the background.

Laterina Mayor Simone Neri also attended the press conference and is excited about the prospect of using the bridge to attract tourists to her town of 3,500.

“We really hope that this wonderful news will intrigue and fascinate local and foreign tourists, realizing that this will be a great opportunity to resume tourism in our territory, on which we can work hard, starting with a naturalistic, cultural and monumental appreciation,” she said .

“We need to try to protect what’s left of the bridge, which will require funding,” Mayor Neri says, noting that there are funds for most areas associated with Da Vinci and other masters.

“There will be some rivalry; we will also need to put up a poster,” she added.

Da Vinci’s 16th-century masterpiece is now kept in the Louvre in Paris, where it is seen by millions of visitors every year. But experts say it owes its world-wide fame to the fact that it was stolen from a gallery by Italian jack-of-all-trades Vincenzo Perugia in 1911, and not to any artistic feature.

“If another work by Leonardo were stolen, it would be the most famous work in the world, not the Mona Lisa,” said Noah Charney, professor of art history and author of The Mona Lisa Heist in 2013, which marked 100 the summer anniversary of the painting being returned.

“There was nothing that really distinguished it as such, except that it was a very good work by a very famous artist – until it was stolen,” the professor added. “The theft is what really boosted her appeal and made her a household name.”