Baptist Bridge

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Anabaptist Bridge, photo from 1918
Secured remains of bridges and a new footbridge

The Anabaptist Bridge ( French Pont des Anabaptistes ) was a bridge over the upper end of the Combe du Bez south of Corgémont in the Bernese Jura . The bridge was part of a road connecting the terrace of Les Boveresses in the east with that of Prés de Cortébert in the west.

history

Location of the Anabaptist Bridge on the Anabaptist Path

The bridge is first mentioned in 1755. At that time it was still made of wood and had to be renewed every 15 to 20 years. Since this no longer met the requirements in the first half of the 19th century, it was rebuilt as a stone bridge.

This bridge, built in the 1830s, was a single-arch road bridge made of natural stone and was 1150  m above sea level. M. Its height was about 14 meters above the gorge and about 20 meters long. The width of the carriageway reached 2.5 meters.

In 1918 there was a spectacular accident in which a rider and his horse fell from the bridge into the gorge because the horse had shied away. The horse had to be killed because of several broken bones, the rider suffered only minor bruises and got away with the shock. On this occasion, the only document of the bridge that still exists today, the above photograph from 1918, was created.

In 1924 the bridge collapsed under the weight of a horse-drawn vehicle and was then only built with wood. Between 1928 and 1932 the road through the Combe du Bez was expanded. With the resulting excavation, a dam was built above the crumbling bridge, on which the road still crosses the Combe du Bez. The Bez only carries water in the area of ​​the bridge during the snowmelt, after thunderstorms or after heavy rainfall.

In 2010 the remains of the stone bridge were fixed so that they would not fall apart any further. In order to lift the historical place from its oblivion, a pedestrian walkway was installed north of the old bridge, which leads the hiking trail away from the road over the gorge along the cultural and historical remains.

baptist

Oldest inscription from 1633

In addition to its status as a link on a traffic route, the bridge became particularly important as one of the secret meeting places of the Anabaptists , who were persecuted by the Bernese government from 1528 and to which the Bishop of Basel allowed to settle outside the settlement areas in the valley. The bridge got its name from this time. The square has been of great importance as a meeting place for the Anabaptists to this day.

The Anabaptists gathered for secular occasions and church services under the bridge in the ravine, which only drops steeply about 300 meters below the bridge. There are innumerable inscriptions engraved on the western rock face, the oldest of which dates from 1633.

literature

  • Pierre Zürcher: The Anabaptist Bridge on the Chasseral - Pont d'une montagne à l'autre in ways and history - Disappeared and forgotten? , Pp. 18-21, ViaStoria, Bern 2006, ISSN  1660-1122 .
  • Markus Rediger / Erwin Röthlisberger: The Anabaptist Bridge (Pont des Anabaptistes) in Anabaptist Guide of Switzerland , pp. 59–60, self-published on behalf of the Conference of Mennonites in Switzerland , 2nd edition 2018, ISBN 978-3-033-01153-3 .

Web links

Commons : Anabaptist Bridge  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In His Majesty's Service - A Bernese Baptist as a master roofer in the service of the authorities in the Jura. In: mennonitica.ch Swiss Association for Anabaptist History of October 12, 2016. Accessed on May 30, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Traces of an unshakable faith. In: Bieler Tagblatt (archive) of August 3, 2005. Retrieved on May 10, 2010 .

Coordinates: 47 ° 10 '0.5 "  N , 7 ° 8' 9.1"  E ; CH1903:  five hundred and seventy-seven thousand and forty-five  /  224026