Saint-Bénézet Bridge – Avignon France – ECTV

Saint-Bénézet Bridge – Avignon France – ECTV

Hey everybody, this is Eric Clark’s travel videos and I’m in Avignon, France. And behind me is the little half bridge at Avignon that connects to the the Pope’s Palace and it’s the point St. Benazette Benze Benze. Anyway, that’s what it looks like. Let’s go take a look at the bridge from out here. I’m not in the walled city. I’m walking along the the water. So, let me turn this around here and you can see. So, here’s the water and you can see the Avenueon sign over there and then the the city is over here and you can see the walled city and all the sunlight hitting it and the churches and that’s the Pope’s Palace over there. But this is the famous bridge. It’s the half bridge. And so it doesn’t go all the way across. It goes out to about the the middle way and then it’s done. Um and the water is really nice and pretty clean. You can see I mean it’s got stuff floating but algae and stuff but but it’s not brown as like Bordeaux was. So this is pretty uh pretty nice this way. Let me see if I can get my zooi to work here. Well, I’ll just walk up to it. But you can see that there’s people walking up on top and it just gets out about uh halfway across and it’s done. But the the city and the Pope’s palace from here is just amazing. Wow. Wow. And you can still see the wall that surrounds the whole city, which is pretty incredible. Let me get over to this bridge if I can get a better picture. You know, it’s funny cuz I read online that the best pictures um from the water side. Well, maybe what that really meant is that if you’re on a boat, because I get nothing but uh twigs and sticks here. So, you can see it and it stops, but you can see where the cars are going underneath it over there. Anyway, well, I’m going to stop here and get a little closer and then get out on it and share the whole thing with you. Bye, everybody. All right, everybody. So, this gives you a little bit better view of this the bridge and it’s pretty amazing. And you can see where it goes about halfway out and stops and the people up on top taking the pictures. And this is the whole bridge and as it connects to the Pope’s palace and the walls and everything else. So, it’s pretty amazing. Pretty darn amazing. Now, let’s go see if I can find out how to get on top of it. Very cool. I’ll be back, everybody. I’ll give you a second just to look at it. Pretty cool. All right, everybody. Here’s another view of the p of the bridge. Um, and it has a church on it. You see the church right here, which is kind of cool. But this is the bridge. And so you can see I mean the cars still go through it. They have a little tunnel right here so that traffic foot traffic and bicycles can go through there without having to get on the road, which I thought was really cool. Um, and you can see where all the people are out there on the tip of the bridge. See them way out there? But this isn’t the neat part for me. I think the neat part for me is, you know, obviously here’s the bridge, but then you get over here and this is how it connects to the Post Palace by a drawbridge, but more incredible than that is look at the wall and the ramp parts. This is that very wall that was connected that I did a video on earlier. And I’m telling you, the wall literally goes all the way around. And this is the bridge video, but I just wanted to show you more of this. I mean, it is amazing. Um, very, very, very cool. And the ramp parts are amazing and the everything is amazing. You won’t be disappointed with Avenue when you come this way. Anyway, I’ll stop talking about the wall and the bridges because I like the structures, but the or the stop talking about the ramp parts and the walls. I’ll talk about the bridge. That’s it for me everybody. Thanks for coming. Bye everybody. All right everybody, this is how you enter um Point St Ben Benzene Benaz. Am I getting closer? Anyway, it is a world heritage site which is pretty cool. And uh let me stick my door in here, head in here and see. It’s pretty amazing. Very cool. All right. All right. Well, let me figure out a ticket and go from there. So, to get into or onto the bridge, back in the old days when I was here, you know, 10 years ago, you bought a ticket to the palace and then the palace would get you out onto the bridge. But now, they’ve got this whole place set up so that you have to buy a ticket and then you’ll climb these stairs right here and then you’ll get up on that little walkway bridge up there and then that’ll take you out onto the to the bridge. But let me show you this too. It was built in the 12th century. So it’s it’s like getting close to a thousand years old and it tells you about it. Uh the chateau or the chalet and then all the numbers are over there. And then here’s the legend stuff like that. Uh so it’s pretty cool. Pretty very cool. Huh. Amazing. And the walls are just incredible, too. Yeah. And it’s a beautiful day. Wow. Sorry I’m panning fast. It’s just uh I get excited. Settle down, Eric. Wow. Very cool. All right, everybody. I’ll be back. So you climb the stairs and they let dogs and everybody out here. Pretty amazing. And then here is the bridge. Let me get my camera centered. That helps, doesn’t it? I’m going to pass these people. [Music] And like I said before, I used to come out here or um from the palace. Oh, and they have a picture of it, too, or the model of it. And here’s the bridge. Here’s the draw bridge that I showed you earlier. Wow. And there’s more of the wall. more of the drawbridge. And I’ll stop turning so fast eventually. So, this is world famous. People come here and spend their whole life to get to this spot. They even have that song. Soon is I don’t even know it. I I just saw it on the on the the wall. And so uh pretty incredible. Look at the view. Wow. And you can go down to the church down here, the chapel. But I’m just going to go straight. And they have the church thing or whatever that is, a cross or something. H pretty amazing. And there’s something here, but it’s in um I don’t know if I can get close enough for you to read that. I don’t think you can. 812 kilometers long. Huh? And you can see it this way, too. Wow. Wow. Wow. Here. This is a good picture, too. You can see the I’m sorry. There’s me panning fast again. The city walls here. Wow. Wow. Hey everybody. There’s my shadow waving at you. Not that uh you need to see that. Oh, I like the little clasp, too. It’s a little dragon. Do you see it? Check that out. And it just hooks on. Wow. That’s really cute, huh? And you can see the stairs. Wow. And all the river boats go right through here, I think. And this is it. The end of the bridge. Wow. Pretty amazing. Very amazing. And it’s a beautiful day. Little breezy, little nippery in the morning, but still beautiful. Oh, here’s the other little part of the thing that sticks out. You can see how fast the water goes, too. Wow. Trying to get my zoom to work so I can zoom in on this picture because it’s pretty amazing. Okay, let me get back to that bottom church and I’ll be back. All right, everybody. Pretty amazing. So, now I’ll go down the stairs and let’s see uh what this looks like here. And they’re pretty stuff, steep uh rough steps. Be careful. Not for the challenged, but [Music] And there’s that uh cross up there, the red and gold. Pretty amazing. And then the big one is this one. And these stones in here are treacherous. So be careful if you ever come here. Very cool. All right, everybody. Thanks for coming to the bridge with me. Thanks for sharing it with me. It’s been fun. Let’s get to the next item.

The Pont Saint-Bénézet (French pronunciation: [pɔ̃ sɛ̃ benezɛ]; Provençal: Pònt de Sant Beneset), also known as the Pont d’Avignon (IPA: [pɔ̃ daviɲɔ̃]; Occitan: Pont d’Avinhon), was a medieval bridge across the Rhône in the town of Avignon, in southern France. Only four arches survive.

An early wooden bridge spanning the Rhône between Villeneuve-lès-Avignon and Avignon was built between 1177 and 1185. This wooden bridge was destroyed forty years later in 1226 during the Albigensian Crusade when Louis VIII of France laid siege to Avignon. Beginning in 1234 the bridge was rebuilt with 22 stone arches. The stone bridge was about 900 m (980 yd) in length and only 4.9 m (16 ft 1 in) in width, including the parapets at the sides. The bridge was abandoned in the mid-17th century as the arches tended to collapse each time the Rhône flooded, making it very expensive to maintain. Four arches and the gatehouse at the Avignon end of the bridge have survived.

The Chapel of Saint Nicholas which sits on the second pier of the bridge, was constructed in the second half of 12th century but has since been substantially altered.[1] The western terminus, the Tour Philippe-le-Bel, is also preserved.

The bridge was the inspiration for the song Sur le pont d’Avignon and is considered a landmark of the city. In 1995, the surviving arches of the bridge were classified as a World Heritage Site, together with the Palais des Papes, Cathédrale Notre-Dame des Doms, and other monuments from the historic centre of Avignon, because of its testimony to Avignon’s leading role in the Papacy during the 14th and 15th centuries.[1]

History
The bridge spanned the Rhône between Avignon and Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. The first bridge was built between 1177 and 1185 but was destroyed during the siege of Avignon by Louis VIII of France in 1226. Beginning in 1234 the bridge was rebuilt.[2] Historians have suggested that the first bridge would have been either constructed entirely of wood or may have been a wooden superstructure supported on stone piers. Only when rebuilt was the bridge constructed entirely in stone.[3][4][a] The stone bridge had 22 arches and 21 piers and a length of some 900 m (980 yd). It did not run directly between the two gatehouses, but instead followed a curved path, probably an adaption to the position of the islands at the time.

Over the centuries the Rhône has shifted across its floodplain. The position of the islands in the 13th century is not well documented but a 17th-century map shows that the southern end of the Île de la Barthelasse was upstream of the bridge. The bridge crossed small islands that lay upstream of the Île de Piot.[6][7] The spacing between the piers varied between 37 and 52 m (121 and 171 ft).[6] The bridge was only 4.9 m (16 ft 1 in) in width, including the parapets at the sides.[8] The arches were liable to collapse when the river flooded and were sometimes replaced with temporary wooden structures before being rebuilt in stone.[2][b][14]

The bridge fell into a state of disrepair during the 17th century. By 1644 the bridge was missing four arches, and a flood in 1669 swept away more of the structure.[15][16] Since then, its surviving arches have successively collapsed or been demolished and only four of the arches remain.[6] The only other visible vestige of the bridge is some masonry from pier 11 that is attached to a private building on the Île de la Barthelasse.[6][c] Remains of other piers are buried under a thick layer of sediment on the island or at the bottom of the Rhône.[6] The locations of piers 9 and 10, both now on the Île de la Barthelasse, were confirmed by cores drilled at their expected positions. Masonry from the piers was reached at a depth of 3 m (10 ft) below ground level. Just below the masonry, at a depth of around 6.7 m (22 ft 0 in), wooden fragments, identified as silver fir (Abies alba), were recovered. Carbon-14 dating of this material gave dates of 1238–1301 AD for pier 9 and 1213–1280 AD for pier 10 (the range is for 2σ).[7]

The arches are segmental rather than the semi-circular shape typically used in Roman bridges. Of the remaining arches the largest span is 35.8 m (117+1⁄2 ft) between the third and fourth piers.[17][18] The piers have cutwaters that are pointed both upstream and downstream. These reduce the scour around the piers, one of the main threats to the stability of stone bridges. The piers were constructed with openings in the stone work to reduce the pressure from the flow of water when river was in flood.

My name is Eric Clark and I am a world traveler. I have been around the world a few times and decided to help fund my travels by sharing my videos and pictures. I have been to almost every country and would be glad to give tips and pointers. Drop me a note. = )