The Viadotto Morandi is the most dramatic physical feature of modern Catanzaro: a massive prestressed concrete viaduct that bridges the deep Fiumarella gorge and connects the upper city hill with the lower areas to the west. Standing 134 metres above the gorge floor, it was completed in 1960 to the designs of Riccardo Morandi and remains a striking piece of mid-century engineering.
The bridge is most impressive viewed from below, from the floor of the Fiumarella valley, where the scale of the piers becomes comprehensible. The gorge itself is a narrow, steep-sided ravine through which the city has historically been divided into separate functioning areas. The bridge resolved a practical problem of urban movement; from an architectural standpoint it also gave Catanzaro one of the most distinctive skylines in Calabria.