Ponte del Paradiso, Stone bridge in Castello district, Venice, Italy

Ponte del Paradiso is a stone bridge crossing the Rio del Mondo Nuovo canal in the Castello district. It features a fifteenth-century marble arch built between two adjacent buildings, with a sculptured Madonna positioned above the opening.

The bridge was built in the fifteenth century and originally displayed the coats of arms of the Foscari and Mocenigo families, two prominent Venetian noble houses. These heraldic symbols marked the importance of the connection between the two adjacent properties.

The name is debated: the Nuova enciclopedia italiana says the patrician Paradiso family owned houses here, while Tassini notes they held no property in the area. Other sources, including ASVE (1937) and Sanudo (1970), record a different Paradiso family descended from Jewish converts, Marco and Francesco Paradiso (Jacob and Salomon Meshulam). Dezan instead links the name to the alley's decoration on feast days, especially Good Friday.

The sculpted arch sits above the southern doorway of the bridge, between two houses on the Calle del Paradiso, so it is seen from the alley rather than from the water. The bridge steps are paved in trachyte and the rest is Istrian stone. The arch was restored under UNESCO between 1993 and 1994.

The arch's Madonna shelters a small adoring figure under her mantle, with a friar and a couple carved at her feet. The coats of arms of the Mocenigo and Foscari families flank it, likely marking a marriage between the two houses in 1491. UNESCO led a restoration of the arch from 1993 to 1994.