Ile de la Barthelasse
| Ile de la Barthelasse | ||
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| Waters | Rhône | |
| Geographical location | 43 ° 58 '12 " N , 4 ° 49' 48" E | |
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| length | 7.9 km | |
| width | 2.8 km | |
| surface | 7 km² | |
| Residents | 934 (1990) 133 inhabitants / km² |
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The Île de la Barthelasse is an island in the Rhône in the Vaucluse department . It lies between the city of Avignon (from which it is separated by the "little Rhône" or the "dead arm") and Villeneuve-lès-Avignon (on the "great Rhône" or "living arm"). It belongs to the municipality of Avignon after it was ceded by the neighboring municipality of Villeneuve in the 1850s.
With an area of around 700 hectares, 400 of which are cultivated, it is one of the largest river islands in Europe.
Access
Earlier
The oldest bridge, north of the current bridges, is the Pont Saint-Bénézet , construction of which began in 1177 and which was completed in 1185, well before the cultivation of the islands that made up the Île de la Barthelasse. At that time it spanned the two arms of the Rhone and the islands to a length of approx. 900 m (915 to 920 m in the springs) and 4 m wide. It consisted of 22 bridge arches, 19 of them over the Rhone, of which only four remain today.
This bridge served as a border post between the Papal States and the territory of France and was for miles the only one with which one could cross the Rhone, at the same time it was ideally suited to collect taxes in the form of road tolls or alms for Saint Bénezet . For a while it was also the only bridge between Lyon and the Mediterranean Sea and thus an important crossing point for numerous traders, travelers, etc.
Before the bridge, the Rhone was crossed by boat. Most of the bridge was owned by the king, who did little to maintain it. As a result, during a strong Rhone flood, one arch of the bridge collapsed in 1603 and three others in 1605. A map of Avignon from 1618 shows the island and the Pont Saint-Bénézet from which four arches collapsed. They were rebuilt around 1628. In 1633, shortly after the bridge was reopened, two new arches collapsed. In 1669, another flood of the Rhone caused several other bridge arches to collapse, so that practically only the current ones remained. A map from 1721 shows that only two intact bridge arches remained on the island.
Current time
Two other bridges lead from Avignon over the Rhone, once the Pont Édouard Daladier , which was formerly known as the Pont du Royaume and leads to Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, and the Pont de l'Europe .
From the other bank, a bridge leads from the municipality of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon to the north-west of the island via Route départementale (Gard) 780 and meets Route départementale (Vaucluse) 228 .
The last bridge in the north of the island finally leads to the municipality of Sorgues .
history
In 1447 Jean Richard von Avignon, known as Barthelucius , established a long lease to use the islands. He grew wheat and was quickly successful with it. From 1495 his name was used to designate the island and in 1531 it was mentioned for the first time in a text of a "l'île dite de la Barthelasse" . The island was originally a chain of islands. Agriculture, dyke construction and deposits led to the growing together of the small islands. However, a map from the late 18th century still shows two islands separated by an arm of water. This allowed direct boat crossings between the ports of Avignon and Villeneuve. The current island shape is due to the union of the islands of Chartreux and Argenton.
In the 19th century the island was stabilized by the construction of dikes. In 1973 the Gierseilferry , which was used to cross the Rhone between Avignon and Barthelasse, was decommissioned.
In 2001 and 2003 the island was flooded by major floods .
fauna and Flora
The Île de la Barthelasse is the largest island in the Rhone and is home to breeding birds: sparrowhawks , black kites , Montagu's harriers and pond claws . Their alluvial forest (black and white poplars , willows , elms and alders ) is a favorable place for warblers , thrushes and herons . Different species live together on the oxbow lakes , such as the gray heron , the purple heron , the mallard , the diving duck , the cormorant and the osprey . One encounters the Florida cottontails that were introduced by hunters, as well as the beaver rats that have escaped from a rearing facility. During the winter, the oxbow lakes are a retreat for ducks , grebes , cormorants and seagulls . Mammals are also very numerous: hedgehogs , moles , shrews , polecats , foxes , badgers , stone marten , weasels , squirrels , dormice , voles and beavers .
The beaver disappeared at the end of the nineteenth century, after which its hunting was banned from 1906. Its last core area was in the lower Rhone Valley between Arles and Pont-Saint-Esprit , with its center in Barthelasse. As a protected species, it recaptured the river and its tributaries piece by piece. Since then, the beaver, whose favorite food is the leaves and bark of willow and poplar, has stayed mainly in large colonies up to the confluence of the Rhone and Galaure rivers and begins to spread towards the Varèze .
economy
- Artisanal distillery Manguin, specializing in fruit brandy of the Williams pear variety
Agriculture
Many orchards (pears Jules Guyot , apples Pink Lady ). Seasonal fruit: cherries, peaches, apricots and tomatoes.
tourism
Restaurants, campsites, yacht club, paintball fields, farmers market
A water taxi enables the crossing to the other bank.
Public facilities
Parc des Libertés green space
Attractions
- Bouchony Manor, monument historique (private), 18th century. Listed as a historical monument: garden, courtyard, hydraulic system, supply building, barn, bucket wheel . At the end of the 18th century, the English Countess von Carliste settled in Avignon and rented this estate. She was the " mother of the King of Ireland of the same name and the sister of Admiral Biron, " remarked Esprit Calvet , who eagerly courted her.
- Numerous masia
- Hunting lodge from the 16th to 17th centuries
population
The island had 934 inhabitants at the 1990 census, compared with 701 in 1982.
Others
In June 2004 Romain Benavent was murdered on the Île de la Barthelasse because he refused to give his attacker Hamadi Ed-Debch a cigarette. The latter was then sentenced to 25 years in prison.
literature
- Joseph Girard: Evocation du vieil Avignon . Les Éditions de Minuit, Paris 1990, ISBN 2-7073-1353-X .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Balade à Vélo
- ↑ a b c Page dédiée aux ponts du Rhone à Avignon ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Joseph Girard: Evocation du Vieil Avignon. P. 28.
- ↑ a b Joseph Girard: Evocation du Vieil Avignon. 2000, p. 353.
- ↑ Joseph Girard: Evocation du Vieil Avignon. 2000, p. 347.
- ↑ L'île de la Barthelasse on avignon.fr
- ↑ Les castors du Rhône
- ↑ Le castor dans la vallée du Rhône ( Memento of May 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 985 kB)
- ↑ Fiche patrimoine d'Avignon
- ↑ Joseph Girard: Evocation du vieil Avignon. P. 272.
- ↑ Chiffres de l'Insee
- ^ Meurtre de Romain Benavent: le parquet fait appel. Scène de crime, May 23, 2006, accessed May 12, 2011 (French).