Avignon city walls

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Avignon city walls
Today's course of the city wall

The city ​​wall of Avignon is a 4330 meter long wall ring that surrounds the historic old town of Avignon . It is flanked by 39 towers and seven main gates and is considered to be one of the best preserved structures of its kind in Europe . The city wall has been classified as a monument historique since February 23, 1902 .

The city wall runs elliptically around the city center within the avignon boulevard ring . It is almost completely closed and is only interrupted by the Rocher des Doms rock , which itself serves as a natural protective wall.

The wall was built with the limestone "molasse burdigalienne", which was formed in the Burdigalium in the Carpentras-Avignon-Camargue sedimentary basin and is abundant in the Avignon area.

Building history

A first ring of walls was created together with the St. Bénézet Bridge in the twelfth century, when Avignon rose to become a self-governing city republic based on the Italian model. During the siege of Avignon in 1226 by Louis VIII , this fortress was destroyed. After the city was attacked several times by troops of the Grandes Compagnies , Pope Clement VI decided. To build a new wall on the ruins of the old wall in 1348. In addition, the population should be protected from impending floods of the Rhone . As part of an extensive defense plan, the city wall was to be equipped with numerous troops and protected by additional moats. The new defensive wall was not completed until 1376, when the Popes decided to leave the city and return to Rome.

In 1856 part of the city wall was destroyed by floods . Eugène Viollet-le-Duc , who was commissioned with the restoration four years later, reinforced the wall to protect against flooding and equipped the Porte de la République city gate, which was newly established at the station, with two towers. In addition to the seven existing city gates, additional gates have been opened to facilitate road traffic. The former moats were filled in in the 19th century and later converted into parking spaces .

gallery

  • Round tower

  • City wall at the Rocher des Doms

  • Porte Saint-Roch

  • Historical view

literature

  • Michel Albarède, Michel Arnaud, Gilles Cotin and Valérie Jacq: Vaucluse (=  Encyclopédies du Voyage ). Gallimard Loisirs, Paris 2007, ISBN 2-7424-1900-4 , p. 138 .
  • Stefan Brandenburg, Ines Mache: Provence. The complete guide for individual travel and discovery in Provence, the Camargue and Marseille . 6th updated edition. Reise Know-How Verlag Rump, Bielefeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-8317-1665-4 , p. 221 .
  • Thorsten Droste: Provence: ancient arenas, Romanesque cloisters, cities with history - a journey through France's sunny province . 7th edition. Reiseverlag Dumont, Ostfildern 2011, ISBN 978-3-7701-3927-9 , p. 111 .
  • Cony Ziegler: Provence with Camargue . 2nd updated edition. Reiseuchverlag Iwanowski, Dormagen 2009, ISBN 978-3-933041-54-8 , p. 350-351 .

Web links

Commons : Avignon City Walls  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Vaucluse , Gallimard, p. 138.
  2. ↑ a b Thorsten Droste: Provence , p. 111.
  3. ↑ Entry no. PA00081943 in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  4. ^ Relief et géologie sur le secteur d'Avignon. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007 ; Retrieved September 27, 2007 (French).
  5. ↑ uibk.ac.at (PDF; 802 kB): Gérard Demarcq: Contribution à l'Ètude des Facies du Miocene de la Vallee du Rhone , in French, accessed on January 2, 2012
  6. ↑ a b Mache, Brandenburg: Provence , p. 221.

Coordinates: 43 ° 57 ′ 11.9 "  N , 4 ° 48 ′ 23"  E