Pont d'Avignon

Stone arches

A wooden bridge was burnt in a siege and rebuilt with 22 stone arches

The first bridge, built between 1177 and 1185, was destroyed in 1226 during the siege of Avignon by Louis VIII of France. From 1234 it was rebuilt in stone, with 22 arches and a length of about 900 metres. It was only 4.9 metres wide, including the parapets.

22stone arches on the rebuilt bridge, about 900 metres long

A shepherd

A shepherd said a vision told him to build it where the Rhône was strongest

An uneducated shepherd, Bénézet, claimed that Jesus commanded him in a vision to build the bridge at a point where the force of the Rhône was so great that it had discouraged even Roman engineers in antiquity. He is the patron saint of bridge builders.

Floods

The Rhône kept breaking the arches until the bridge was given up

The arches were liable to collapse when the river flooded and were sometimes replaced with temporary wooden structures before being rebuilt in stone. The bridge was abandoned in the mid-17th century because it was so expensive to maintain. By 1644 four arches were missing, and a flood in 1669 swept away more.

The design

The piers had holes to let the flood through

The arches are segmental rather than semi-circular like most Roman bridges, and the largest remaining span is 35.8 metres. The piers have cutwaters pointed both upstream and downstream, and were built with openings in the stonework to reduce the pressure from the river in flood.

The song

Only four arches stand, and a song keeps the bridge famous

Only four arches survive, with the gatehouse at the Avignon end. The Chapel of Saint Nicholas sits on the second pier. The bridge was the inspiration for the song Sur le pont d'Avignon, and in 1995 its surviving arches were classified as a World Heritage Site together with the Palais des Papes.