The bridge was also the site of devotion by the Rhône boatmen. This is because their patron saint was Saint Nicholas. They initially worshipped in the Saint Nicholas Chapel on the bridge itself (where Saint Bénézet's body was also interred). However, the bad condition of the bridge made it difficult to go there. In 1715 the confraternity of boatmen built a chapel on dry land on the Avignon side of the bridge. This was outside the ramparts next to the gatehouse. This chapel was destroyed by a major flood of the Rhône in 1856. A house for a caretaker was built on the ruins during the restoration work. This started around 1878. The residence was demolished after the restoration work on the bridge and gatehouse in the 1980s.
The bridge had great strategic importance. When it was built, it was the only fixed river crossing between Lyon and the Mediterranean Sea. It was also the only river crossing between the Comtat Venaissin (an enclave controlled by the Pope) and France controlled by the kings of France. As such, it was closely guarded on both sides of the river. The right bank was controlled by the French crown. The fortress of the Tour Philippe-le-Bel was close enough to see the bridge. This was built at the beginning of the 14th century. On the Avignon side, a large gatehouse was built in the 14th century. It was changed a lot in the 15th century. The walkway passed over the city wall and down a ramp (now destroyed). This led into the city.
Between 1265 and 1309 another stone bridge was built across the Rhône, . This was upstream from Avignon, at what is now Pont-Saint-Esprit. At the time, it was called Saint-Saturnin-du-Port. The Pont-Saint-Esprit bridge originally had 20 arches. It was long. Although it is now changed, the medieval bridge still exists as of 2020.
The Chapel of Saint Nicholas and the four remaining arches were listed as a "Monument historique" in 1840.
There has been a debate on whether there was a bridge before the Saint Bénézet bridge was built in the 12th century. Henri Revoil first said there may have been an older bridge. He said this at the French Archaeological Conference held in Avignon in 1882. His main argument was that the stonework at the base of the four surviving piers became visible. At very low water, stone blocks were visible. They were larger than those above. They had features that looked foreign to the existing bridge. The style of the masonry indicated to Revoil that there had been an earlier bridge dating from either the late Roman or Carolingian periods. In 1892 Louis Rochetin published an article. It said that the stone blocks at the base of the first pier and those on either side of the second pier supporting the chapel were the remains of springers that would have supported earlier Roman arches.
Denis-Marcel Marié self-published a book about the bridge in 1953. It looked at all the previous publications. In the last chapter it supported the hypothesis that there was an earlier bridge built by the Gallo-Romans around the end of the Roman occupation. He said that the bases of the piers that were still there belonged to this earlier bridge. He also said that the semi-circular arches used during the Roman period meant that the level of the roadway would have been higher than the top of the surviving chapel. Marié supposed that this early bridge had collapsed over the following seven centuries. He said that the 12th century Bénézet bridge had a decking supported on wooden piles linking the ruined Roman piers. The piles were needed because the gaps between the Roman stone piers would have been too large to span with wooden beams without the support in between. The height of the Bénézet bridge would have been at the level of the lower chapel.
Perrot "et al." published an article in 1971 about a Roman bridge too. The article talked about a survey in 1969 on the vestiges of the piers in the Villeneuve branch of the river the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône (CNR) destroyed them. The article also had long quotes from an unpublished report by Mr Mathian, an engineer working for the CNR. This was about a survey carried out in 1965 on the four intact piers on the Avignon side of the river. This survey found a layer of wood, at least 20 cm in thickness. This was under the foundations of each of the four intact piers.
A sample of the wood was dated by the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). They used the radiocarbon technique. It was from between 290 and 530 AD, corresponding to the end of the Roman Empire. In the survey of the ruined piers in the Villeneuve channel, a pier (listed as number 14) was found to contain wooden beams inside the masonry. A sample of this wood was radiodated to 890 AD. During the dredging of the Villeneuve channel the remains of three large wooden piles were recovered. Two of these were still covered with iron tips.
The archaeologist Dominique Carru, accepted the radiocarbon date for the sample of wood. However, he argued in 1999 that it is very unlikely that an earlier bridge existed. It is not mentioned in the surviving texts from the high medieval period . Also, a bridge would have led to the development of a town on the right bank of the Rhône opposite Avignon, similar to those at other locations in the Rhône valley, such as Trinquetaille opposite Arles and Saint-Romain-en-Gal near Vienne. There is no evidence for an important early settlement near the terminus of the bridge. The main east-west route in the Roman period passed through Tarascon-Beaucaire, to the south. It avoided the river at Avignon which was wide and variable in position.
The bridge has became famous with the song "Sur le Pont d'Avignon" ("On the Bridge of Avignon"). An earlier song with the same title was popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. Ottaviano Petrucci published the melody in his "Harmonice Musices Odhecaton" of 1503-4. The 16th-century composer Pierre Certon used the melody in a mass with the title: "Sus le Pont d'Avignon". The modern version of the song dates from the mid-19th century. Adolphe Adam included it in the opéra comique "Le Sourd ou l'Auberge pleine." This was first played in Paris in 1853. The opera was an adaptation of the 1790 comedy by Desforges.
Belfries of Belgium and France
The Belfries of Belgium and France are a group of 56 historical buildings. They are part of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Europe. It shows a design change from feudal and religious influence in historic Flanders and its neighboring regions of the Duchy of Burgundy.
UNESCO included 32 towers of Belfries of Flanders and Wallonia in 1999. In 2005, the bell tower of Gembloux in the Walloon Region of Belgium and 23 others from the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy regions were added to the renamed list. Brussels Town Hall and its bell tower were not included since was already part of the Grand Place World Heritage Site.
Additional six church towers were also added since they served as watchtowers or alarm bell towers. These include Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, St. Rumbolds Cathedral in Mechelen, St. Peter's Church, Leuven, St. Germanus Church in Tienen, the Basilica of Our Lady in Tongeren and St. Leonard's Church in Zoutleeuw.
Most of the buildings in the list are towers from bigger buildings. A few of them are restoration of towers previously connected to nearby bigger buildings.
The ID numbers match the order in the complete list ID from 943 to 943bis from UNESCO.
Missaukee County, Michigan
Missaukee County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, 14,849 people live here. The county seat is Lake City.
The Fireball
The Fireball is a 1950 American drama movie directed by Tay Garnett and starring Mickey Rooney, Pat O'Brien. It was distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Soldiers Three
Soldiers Three is a 1951 American historical adventure movie directed by Tay Garnett and starring Stewart Granger, Walter Pidgeon, David Niven. It was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.