Pont de Vernay (Airvault)

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Coordinates: 46 ° 49 ′ 9 ″  N , 0 ° 8 ′ 46 ″  W.

Pont de Vernay
Pont de Vernay
use Road bridge
Crossing of Thouet
place Airvault , France
construction Stone arch bridge with girders
overall length approx. 115 m
width approx. 3.50 m
Number of openings 11
Clear width Max. 11 m
Pillar strength approx. 2 m
start of building 12th century
location
Pont de Vernay (Airvault) (Deux-Sèvres)
Pont de Vernay (Airvault)

The Pont de Vernay is a bridge over the river Thouet in Airvault , Deux-Sevres , in the French region Nouvelle-Aquitaine .

function

The Pont de Vernay connected - instead of an older ford - the east bank of the Thouet with its west bank and was just as important for traveling merchants and merchants as it was for pilgrims or the farmers of the area. Today the bridge is only of local importance, as two road bridges take the main traffic about 500 and 1300 meters further north.

location

The Pont de Vernay is about a kilometer southwest of the center of Airvault.

Building history

According to oral tradition, the construction of the bridge was initiated by the monks of the Abbey of Saint Pierre von Airvault in the 12th century and - at least in part - also carried out by them themselves. In the centuries that followed, the bridge was repeatedly restored; the last repair work took place in 1960. The bridge structure was entered in the list of historical monuments as early as 1868 .

architecture

The approximately 115 m long and average 3.50 m wide medieval stone arch bridge consists of 11 arches of different heights but with approximately the same span. Each arch is subject to three belt arches - a characteristic that can also be found on some English bridges of that time, but is otherwise unknown in France (see also: Pont de Santa Quitèria near Villareal , Province of Castellón , Spain ). So maybe it wasn't the Airvault monks, but specialized bridge builders from the Plantagenets , who tackled the construction. The slightly recessed outer belt arches add to the aesthetics of the bridge.

The upstream side of the pillar is sharpened to drain off floating debris; on the other hand, the pillar side lying downstream is additionally stabilized by buttresses . A bead runs directly below the approximately 80 cm high parapets on both sides of the roadway, which suggests that the bridge structures were partially renewed in the Renaissance or Baroque periods.

  • Pont de Vernay with belt arches (upstream)

  • Pont de Vernay (downstream)

  • View from the bridge (upstream)

  • View from the bridge (downstream)

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pont de Vernay, Airvault in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)

literature

  • Guy Grattesat, Auguste Arsac, Jean Mesqui and others a .: Ponts de France. Presses Ponts et chaussées, Paris 1984, ISBN 2-85978-030-0 , p. 294.
  • Marcel Prade: Les ponts monuments historiques. Éditions Brissaud, Poitiers 1988, ISBN 2-902170-54-8 , p. 431.
  • Serge Montens: Les plus beaux ponts de France. Bonneton, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-86253-275-4 , p. 199.

Web links

Commons : Pont de Vernay  - collection of images, videos and audio files