The Architecture of Provence and the RivieraMacGibbon, David
History
The Architecture of Provence and the Riviera
MacGibbon, David
Architecture -- France -- Provence; Architecture -- France -- Riviera
About three miles from St Paul may be seen the monument of this saint,
said to be of very ancient and curious construction. It is partly built
into the church, and is ornamented with a remarkable frieze, containing
a rude representation of the last supper.
The station of La Croisière is the nearest to a very remarkable specimen
of mediæval construction, the PONT ST ESPRIT. This celebrated bridge was
planned and begun in 1265 by Jean de Tensanges, the abbot of the order
of Cluny, in the district of St Savourin du Port, which belonged to the
abbey. It was thirty years in building, but we have proof that the work
was well planned and skilfully executed, in the fact that it subsists
till the present day. The length of the bridge is about 3000 feet, and
the width of the roadway is 16 feet. There are twenty-two arches, all
semi-circular in form, and constructed with carefully wrought courses of
arch stones, forming separate rings set together side by side, but not
bonded into one another. This mode of construction was probably borrowed
from the bridge of St Bénezet at Avignon, which again derived it from
the Roman Pont du Gard. Over the piers are smaller arched openings to
allow the water of the high floods of the Rhone to pass freely through.
Like the Pont St Bénezet at Avignon the Pont St Esprit does not run
straight across the river, but is bent at an obtuse angle against the
current so as to resist its pressure. The bridge was fortified at both
ends by castles erected by the suzerains on the opposite sides of the
river. These remained till the seventeenth century, when one of them was
brought into connection with the citadel of the town constructed by
Louis XIII. This was the last bridge erected by the “Frères hospitaliers
pontifes” (of whom we shall hear more at Avignon). After the thirteenth
century neither Communes nor Nobles found it necessary to apply to the
monks for their aid as architects and engineers. By that time the lay
architects had superseded them, in the manner above described (Part V.)
Passing next close under the rocky heights crowned with the picturesque
ruins of the castles of Montdragon and Mornas, the massive wall of the
theatre of Orange rising high above the plain arrests the eye.
A little further on the ramparts and gates of the small walled town of
COURTHÉZON are visible close to the railway; soon after passing which,
the bold outline of the great Palace of the Popes discovers itself to
view towering on its rock above the town of AVIGNON.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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