Pont Saint-Bénézet

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Pont Saint-Bénézet , in the background the Palais des Papes . The bell gable of the Nikolauskapelle can be seen on the bridge.
The detail from the Perussis altar by Nicolas Froment (around 1480) is considered the oldest representation of the Pont Saint-Bénézet
Avignon Bridge, engraving (1575)
City map from the Atlas van Loon (1663)
Boats in Avignon , engraving (around 1840)

The Pont Saint-Bénézet , also called Pont d'Avignon , is the ruin of an arch bridge in the French city of Avignon , which spans part of the eastern arm of the Rhone . The bridge is named after Saint Bénézet . The building was the inspiration for the song Sur le pont d'Avignon and is considered a symbol of the city. As early as 1840, the Pont Saint-Bénézet was included in the French national list of historical monuments as Monument historique . Together with the Papal Palace of Avignon and the Cathedral of Avignon , it forms the UNESCO World Heritage Historic Center of Avignon .

location

The bridge lies at the foot of the Rocher-des-Doms rock in the immediate vicinity of the Papal Palace and the Musée du Petit Palais .

The part of the Pont Saint-Bénézet on the banks is just outside the city ​​walls of Avignon on the south-east bank of the river. It begins near the Rocher des Doms and is connected to a watchtower of the Palais des Papes . The Boulevard du Quai de la Ligne runs under the first arch of the bridge.

The part of the Pont Saint-Bénézet located above the water is built in the direction of the Île de la Barthelasse , an island between Avignon and Villeneuve-lès-Avignon , and spans about half the width of the eastern river arm.

Legend

According to legend, the shepherd boy Benoît or Bénézet was induced by a heavenly voice to build a bridge over the Rhone. When he communicated this to the townspeople, he was laughed at and mocked. Then he picked up a heavy stone and laid the foundation stone, whereupon a community of citizens with the aim of building bridges was formed. After his death, Bénézet was buried in the bridge.

history

At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, some researchers proposed that a Roman bridge should have stood on the site of the current bridge . However, this thesis is now considered outdated for various reasons.

The first wooden bridge built by Louis de Sade between 1171 and 1185 was almost completely destroyed in 1226 when the city was besieged by Louis VIII . The coat of arms of the new stone building by Hugues II. De Sade from 1355 still reminds us today. At the time of the exile of the Popes in Avignon (1309–1377), the Rhone and thus the bridge formed the border between the Kingdom of France and the Papal States ( Comtat Venaissin ). The double chapel, which is still in ruins today, was built on the third pillar on the northern side in the 14th century. The bridge was damaged several times in the following period by wars and floods. Severe damage as a result of another flood led to the final abandonment of the bridge around 1660. Subsequent floods continued the work of destruction until finally only four bridge arches remained.

architecture

The bridge, built in the 12th century, was based on 22 arches and had a total length of approximately 915 m, making it the longest bridge in Europe at the time. It spanned both arms of the Rhone and the Île de la Barthelasse and ended at the Tour Philippe le Bel in what is now Villeneuve-lès-Avignon.

The slender and flat arches, four of which are still preserved today, have a clear width of 33 m and an arch stitch of 13 m. The structure is only about 2.80 m wide and had - like most medieval bridges - no side parapet walls. On one of the pillars, each 8 m in diameter, there is a double chapel , the upper chapel of which is dedicated to Nicholas of Myra and the lower to St. Bénézet.

literature

  • Simone Balossino and Andreas Hartmann-Virnich: Le pont d'Avignon: enquêtes archéologiques et historiques sur les débuts d'un monument énigmatique . In: INSITU. Zeitschrift für Architekturgeschichte 7 (2/2015), pp. 179–196.
  • Günther Philipp: In the land of a thousand chapels. The Romanesque Provence. Karlsruhe 2000, ISBN 3-87297-141-7 .

Web links

Commons : Pont Saint-Bénézet  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pont Saint-Bénézet, Avignon in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  2. ↑ Entry on the website of the UNESCO World Heritage Center ( English and French ).
  3. ^ Pont Saint-Bénézet, Avignon - map
  4. ↑ Gerhard Mehlhorn: Handbook Bridges: Drafting, Constructing, Calculating, Building and Maintaining , Springer-Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 2007, p. 27 f. at google books
  5. ^ Guy Barruol, Maurice Rouquette: Travel routes through the Romanesque Provence . Wuerzburg 1993.

Coordinates: 43 ° 57 ′ 15.7 "  N , 4 ° 48 ′ 16.6"  E