Pont du Gard
Encyclopedia
The Pont du Gard is a notable ancient Roman aqueduct
bridge
that crosses the Gard River
in southern France
. It is part of a 50 km (31.1 mi) long aqueduct that runs between Uzès
and Nîmes
in the South of France. It is located in Vers-Pont-du-Gard
near Remoulins
, in the Gard
département. The aqueduct was constructed by the Romans in the 1st century AD and was added to UNESCO
's list of World Heritage Site
s in 1985. It is the highest of all Roman aqueduct bridges and is the best preserved after the Aqueduct of Segovia
.
The bridge has three tiers of arches, standing 48.8 m (160.1 ft) high, and formerly carried an estimated 200 million liters (44 million gallons) of water a day to the fountains, baths and homes of the citizens of Nîmes. The aqueduct descends in height by only 17 m (55.8 ft) over its entire length, while the bridge itself descends by a mere 2.5 cm, indicative of the great precision that Roman engineers were able to achieve using only simple technology. It was possibly used until as late as the 9th century, well after the fall of Rome. However, lack of maintenance after the 4th century meant that it became increasingly clogged by mineral deposits and debris that eventually choked off the flow of water.
The Pont du Gard's subsidiary function as a toll bridge ensured its survival in the Middle Ages. Although some of its stones were looted, the local lords and bishops were for centuries responsible for its upkeep in exchange for the right to levy tolls on travellers using it to cross the river. It attracted increasing fame from the 18th century onwards and became an important tourist destination. It underwent a series of renovations that culminated in 2000 with the opening of a new visitor centre and the removal of traffic and buildings from the bridge and the area immediately around it. Today it is one of France's most popular tourist attractions.
hills above Nîmes. The Garrigues are the southernmost foothills of the Massif Central
. They are difficult to cross, as they are covered in dense vegetation and indented by deep valleys, and it was impractical for the Romans to attempt to tunnel through the hills. A roundabout course was therefore the only practical way of transporting the water from the spring to the city.
The Fontaine d'Eure, at 76 m (249.3 ft) above sea level, is only 17 m (55.8 ft) higher than the delivery tank or castellium in Nîmes, but this provided a sufficient gradient to sustain a steady flow of water to the 50,000 inhabitants of the city. The aqueduct's average gradient is only 1 in 3,000. It varies widely along its course, but is as little as 1 in 20,000 in some locations. The Pont du Gard itself descends 2.5 cm (0.984251968503937 in) in 456 m (1,496.1 ft), a gradient of 1 in 18,241. It is estimated that the aqueduct supplied the city with around 200000000 litres (43,993,849.7 imp gal) of water a day that took nearly 27 hours to flow from the source to the city.
The spring still exists and is the site of a small modern pumping station. It provides water that is pure but high in dissolved calcium carbonate
leached out of the surrounding limestone
. The carbonates caused significant problems for the maintenance of the aqueduct, as they precipitated out of the water during its journey through the conduit. This led to the flow of the aqueduct progressively becoming reduced by deposited carbonates. Another threat was posed by vegetation penetrating the stone lid of the channel. As well as obstructing the flow of the water, dangling roots introduced algae and bacteria that decomposed in a process called biolithogenesis, producing concretions within the conduit. It had to be maintained continuously by circitores, maintenance workers responsible for its upkeep, who would crawl along the conduit scrubbing the walls clean and getting rid of any vegetation.
Like most Roman aqueducts, much of it was built underground. It was constructed by digging a trench in which a stone channel was built and enclosed by an arched roof of stone slabs, which was then covered with earth. Some sections of the channel are tunnelled through solid rock. In all, 35 km (21.7 mi) of the aqueduct was constructed below the ground. The remainder had to be carried on the surface, either on a wall or on arched bridges. Some substantial remains of the above-ground works can still be seen today, such as the so-called "Pont Rue" that stretches for hundreds of metres around Vers and still stands up to 7.5 m (24.6 ft) high. However, the Pont du Gard is by far the best preserved section of the entire aqueduct.
The first level of the Pont du Gard adjoins a road bridge that was added in the 18th century. The water conduit or specus, which is about 1.8 m (5.9 ft) high and 1.2 m (3.9 ft) wide, is carried at the top of the third level. The upper levels of the bridge are slightly curved in the upstream directions, a fact long attributed to the engineers wanting to strengthen it against the flow of water, like a dam wall. However, a microtopographic survey carried out in 1989 showed that the bend is caused by the daily expansion and contraction of stones under the heat of the sun, by about 5 mm (0.196850393700787 in). Over the centuries, this process has produced the deformation witnessed now.
The Pont du Gard was constructed largely without the use of mortar or clamps. It contains an estimated 50,400 tons of stone with a volume of some 21,000 m³; some of the individual blocks weigh up to 6 tons. They were precisely cut to fit perfectly together by friction alone, eliminating the need for mortar. The builders also left inscriptions on the stonework conveying various messages and instructions. Many blocks were numbered and inscribed with the required locations, such as fronte dextra or fronte sinistra (front right or front left), to guide the builders.
The identity of the architect is unknown, but the method of construction is fairly well understood. The patron of the aqueduct – a rich individual or the city of Nîmes itself – would have hired a large team of contractors and skilled labourers. The route would have been planned by a surveyor or mensor, using a groma
for sighting, the chorobates
for levelling, and a set of measuring poles five or ten Roman feet long. He would have recorded figures and perhaps drawn plans on wax tablets, later to be written up on scrolls. The builders may have used templates to guide them with tasks that required a high degree of precision, such as carving the standardised blocks from which the water conduit was constructed.
The builders would have made extensive use of cranes and block and tackle
pulleys to lift the stones into place. Much of the work could have been done using simple sheers
operated by a windlass
. For the largest blocks, a massive human-powered treadmill would have been used; such machines were still being used in the quarries of Provence until as late as the start of the 20th century. A complex scaffold was erected to support the bridge as it was being built. Large blocks were left protruding from the bridge to support the frames and scaffolds used during construction. The stone came from local quarries. The aqueduct as a whole would have been a very expensive undertaking; Émile Espérandieu estimated the cost to be over 30 million sesterces.
Although the exterior of the Pont du Gard is rough and relatively unfinished, the builders took care to ensure that the interior of the water conduit was as smooth as possible so that the flow of water would not be obstructed. The walls of the conduit were constructed from dressed masonry and the floor from concrete. Both were covered with a stucco
incorporating minute shards of pottery and tile. It was painted with olive oil and covered with maltha, a mixture of slaked lime, pork grease and the viscous juice of unripe figs. This produced a surface that was both smooth and durable.
The Pont du Gard's design represents a fairly early stage in the development of Roman aqueducts. Its designer's technique of stacking arches on top of each other is clumsy and expensive, as it necessitates the use of a very large amount of stone. Later aqueducts had a more sophisticated design, making greater use of concrete to reduce their volume and cost of construction. The Aqueduct of Segovia
and the Aqüeducte de les Ferreres
are of roughly similar length but use far fewer arches. Roman architects were eventually able to do away with "stacking" altogether. The Acueducto de los Milagros
in Mérida, Spain
and a similar aqueduct near Cherchell
, Algeria
utilise tall, slender piers, constructed from top to bottom with concrete faced with masonry and brick.
' son-in-law and aide, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
, around the year 19 BC. At the time, he was serving as aedile
, the senior magistrate responsible for managing the water supply of Rome and its colonies. Espérandieu, writing in 1926, linked the construction of the aqueduct with Agrippa's visit to Narbonensis in that year. Newer excavations, however, suggest the construction may have taken place between 40 and 60 AD. Tunnels dating from the time of Augustus had to be bypassed by the builders of the Nîmes aqueduct, and coins discovered in the outflow in Nîmes are no older than the reign of the emperor Claudius
(41-54 AD). On this basis, a team led by Guilherm Fabre has argued that the aqueduct must have been completed around the middle of the 1st century AD. It is believed to have taken about fifteen years to build, employing between 800 and 1,000 workers.
From the 4th century onwards, the aqueduct's maintenance was neglected as successive waves of invaders disrupted the region. It became clogged with debris, encrustations and plant roots, greatly reducing the flow of the water. The resulting deposits in the conduit, consisting of layers of dirt and organic material, are up to 50 cm (19.7 in) thick on each wall. Nonetheless it seems to have continued to supply water to Nimes until as late as the 9th century.
Although some of its stones were plundered for use elsewhere, the Pont du Gard remained largely intact. Its survival was due to its use as a toll bridge
across the valley. In the 13th century the French king granted the seigneur
s of Uzès the right to levy tolls on those using the bridge. The right later passed to the Bishops of Uzès. In return, they were responsible for maintaining the bridge in good repair. However, it suffered serious damage during the 1620s when Henri, Duke of Rohan made use of the bridge to transport his artillery during the wars between the French royalists and the Hugenots, whom he led. To make space for his artillery to cross the bridge, the duke had one side of the second row of arches cut away to a depth of about one-third of their original thickness. This left a gap on the lowest deck wide enough to accommodate carts and cannons, but severely weakened the bridge in the process.
In 1702 the local authorities renovated the Pont du Gard to repair cracks, fill in ruts and replace the stones lost in the previous century. A new bridge was built by the engineer Henri Pitot
in 1743-47 next to the arches of the lower level, so that the road traffic could cross on a purpose-built bridge. The novelist Alexandre Dumas was strongly critical of the construction of the new bridge, commenting that "it was reserved for the eighteenth century to dishonour a monument which the barbarians of the fifth had not dared to destroy." However, the Pont du Gard continued to deteriorate and by the time Prosper Mérimée
saw it in 1835 it was at serious risk of collapse from erosion and the loss of stonework.
Napoleon III, who had a great admiration for all things Roman, visited the Pont du Gard in 1850 and took a close interest in it. He approved plans by the architect Charles Laisné to repair the bridge in a project which was carried out between 1855–58, with funding provided by the Ministry of State. The work involved substantial renovations that included replacing the eroded stone, infilling some of the piers with concrete to aid stability and improving drainage by separating the bridge from the aqueduct. Stairs were installed at one end and the conduit walls were repaired, allowing visitors to walk along the conduit itself in reasonable safety.
There have been a number of subsequent projects to consolidate the piers and arches of the Pont du Gard. It has survived three serious floods over the last century; in 1958 the whole of the lower tier was submerged by a giant flood that washed away other bridges, and in 1998 another major flood affected the area. A further flood struck in 2002, badly damaging nearby installations.
), many of whom have left their names on the stonework. From the 18th century onwards, particularly after the construction of the new road bridge, it became a famous staging-post for travellers on the Grand Tour
and became increasingly renowned as an object of historical importance and French national pride.
The bridge has had a long association with French monarchs seeking to associate themselves with a symbol of Roman imperial power. King Charles IX of France
visited in 1564 during his Grand Tour of France and was greeted with a grand entertainment laid on by the Duc d'Uzès. Twelve young girls dressed as nymph
s came out of a cave by the riverside near the aqueduct and presented the king with pastry and preserved fruits. A century later, Louis XIV
and his court visited the Pont du Gard during a visit to Nîmes in January 1660 shortly after the signature of the Treaty of the Pyrenees
. In 1786 his great-great-great-grandson Louis XVI
commissioned the artist Hubert Robert
to produce a set of paintings of Roman ruins of southern France to hang in the king's new dining room at the Palace of Fontainebleau, including a picture depicting the Pont du Gard in an idealised landscape. The commission was meant to reassert the ties between the French monarchy and the imperial past. Napoleon III, in the mid-19th century, consciously identified with the Roman emperor Augustus and accorded great respect to Roman antiquities; his patronage of the bridge's restoration in the 1850s was essential to its survival.
The Pont du Gard was added to UNESCO
's list of World Heritage Site
s in 1985. The description on the list states: "The hydraulic engineers and ... architects who conceived this bridge created a technical as well as artistic masterpiece." By this time, however, the site was congested with vehicle traffic – which was still allowed to drive over the 1743 road bridge – and was cluttered with illegally built structures and tourist shops lining the river banks. As the architect Jean-Paul Viguier
put it, the "appetite for gain" had transformed the Pont du Gard into "a fairground attraction".
In 1996 the General Council of the Gard département began a major four-year project to improve the area, sponsored by the French government, in conjunction with local sources, UNESCO and the EU. The entire area around the bridge was pedestrianised and a new visitor centre was built on the north bank to a design by Jean-Paul Viguier. The redevelopment has ensured that the area around the Pont du Gard is now much quieter due to the removal of vehicle traffic, and the new museum provides a much improved historical context for visitors.
The Pont du Gard is today one of France's top five tourist attractions, with 1.4 million visitors reported in 2001.
was overwhelmed when he first visited it in 1738:
The novelist Henry James
, visiting in 1884, was similarly impressed; he described the Pont du Gard as "unspeakably imposing, and nothing could well be more Roman." He commented:
Hilaire Belloc
wrote in 1928 that "when one sees the thing all that is said of it comes true. Its isolation, its dignity, its weight, are all three awful. It looks as though it had been built long before all record by beings greater than ourselves, and were intended to stand long after the dissolution of our petty race. One can repose in it. I confess to a great reluctance to praise what has been praised too much; but so it is. A man, suffering from the unrest of our time, might do worse than camp out for three days, fishing and bathing under the shadow of the Pont du Gard."
Roman aqueduct
The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts to serve any large city in their empire, as well as many small towns and industrial sites. The city of Rome had the largest concentration of aqueducts, with water being supplied by eleven aqueducts constructed over a period of about 500 years...
bridge
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
that crosses the Gard River
Gardon
The Gardon or Gard is a river in southern France. It is the namesake of the Gard département. Several of its tributaries are also called Gardon....
in southern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. It is part of a 50 km (31.1 mi) long aqueduct that runs between Uzès
Uzès
Uzès is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.It lies about 25 km north-northeast of Nîmes.-History:Originally Ucetia, Uzès was a small Gallo-Roman oppidum, or administrative settlement. The town lies at the source of the Eure, from where a Roman aqueduct was built in the first...
and Nîmes
Nîmes
Nîmes is the capital of the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and is a popular tourist destination.-History:...
in the South of France. It is located in Vers-Pont-du-Gard
Vers-Pont-du-Gard
Vers-Pont-du-Gard is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.The Pont du Gard is located on the territory of the commune.-Population:-International relations:Vers-Pont-du-Gard is twinned with:...
near Remoulins
Remoulins
Remoulins is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.The Pont du Gard is located in nearby Vers-Pont-du-Gard.-Population:-External links:* *...
, in the Gard
Gard
Gard is a département located in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region.The department is named after the River Gard, although the formerly Occitan name of the River Gard, Gardon, has been replacing the traditional French name in recent decades, even among French speakers.- History...
département. The aqueduct was constructed by the Romans in the 1st century AD and was added to UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
's list of World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
s in 1985. It is the highest of all Roman aqueduct bridges and is the best preserved after the Aqueduct of Segovia
Aqueduct of Segovia
The Aqueduct of Segovia is a Roman aqueduct and one of the most significant and best-preserved ancient monuments left on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
The bridge has three tiers of arches, standing 48.8 m (160.1 ft) high, and formerly carried an estimated 200 million liters (44 million gallons) of water a day to the fountains, baths and homes of the citizens of Nîmes. The aqueduct descends in height by only 17 m (55.8 ft) over its entire length, while the bridge itself descends by a mere 2.5 cm, indicative of the great precision that Roman engineers were able to achieve using only simple technology. It was possibly used until as late as the 9th century, well after the fall of Rome. However, lack of maintenance after the 4th century meant that it became increasingly clogged by mineral deposits and debris that eventually choked off the flow of water.
The Pont du Gard's subsidiary function as a toll bridge ensured its survival in the Middle Ages. Although some of its stones were looted, the local lords and bishops were for centuries responsible for its upkeep in exchange for the right to levy tolls on travellers using it to cross the river. It attracted increasing fame from the 18th century onwards and became an important tourist destination. It underwent a series of renovations that culminated in 2000 with the opening of a new visitor centre and the removal of traffic and buildings from the bridge and the area immediately around it. Today it is one of France's most popular tourist attractions.
The Nîmes aqueduct
The Nîmes aqueduct originally carried water from the springs of the Fontaine d'Eure near Ucetia (Uzès) to a delivery tank or castellum divisorum in Nemausus (Nîmes), from where it was distributed to fountains, baths and private homes around the city. Although the straight-line distance between the two is only about 20 km (12.4 mi), the aqueduct takes a winding route measuring around 50 km (31.1 mi) to avoid the GarrigueGarrigue
Garrigue or phrygana is a type of low, soft-leaved scrubland ecoregion and plant community in the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. It is found on limestone soils around the Mediterranean Basin, generally near the seacoast, where the climate is ameliorated, but where annual summer...
hills above Nîmes. The Garrigues are the southernmost foothills of the Massif Central
Massif Central
The Massif Central is an elevated region in south-central France, consisting of mountains and plateaux....
. They are difficult to cross, as they are covered in dense vegetation and indented by deep valleys, and it was impractical for the Romans to attempt to tunnel through the hills. A roundabout course was therefore the only practical way of transporting the water from the spring to the city.
The Fontaine d'Eure, at 76 m (249.3 ft) above sea level, is only 17 m (55.8 ft) higher than the delivery tank or castellium in Nîmes, but this provided a sufficient gradient to sustain a steady flow of water to the 50,000 inhabitants of the city. The aqueduct's average gradient is only 1 in 3,000. It varies widely along its course, but is as little as 1 in 20,000 in some locations. The Pont du Gard itself descends 2.5 cm (0.984251968503937 in) in 456 m (1,496.1 ft), a gradient of 1 in 18,241. It is estimated that the aqueduct supplied the city with around 200000000 litres (43,993,849.7 imp gal) of water a day that took nearly 27 hours to flow from the source to the city.
Calcium carbonate
Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the formula CaCO3. It is a common substance found in rocks in all parts of the world, and is the main component of shells of marine organisms, snails, coal balls, pearls, and eggshells. Calcium carbonate is the active ingredient in agricultural lime,...
leached out of the surrounding limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
. The carbonates caused significant problems for the maintenance of the aqueduct, as they precipitated out of the water during its journey through the conduit. This led to the flow of the aqueduct progressively becoming reduced by deposited carbonates. Another threat was posed by vegetation penetrating the stone lid of the channel. As well as obstructing the flow of the water, dangling roots introduced algae and bacteria that decomposed in a process called biolithogenesis, producing concretions within the conduit. It had to be maintained continuously by circitores, maintenance workers responsible for its upkeep, who would crawl along the conduit scrubbing the walls clean and getting rid of any vegetation.
Like most Roman aqueducts, much of it was built underground. It was constructed by digging a trench in which a stone channel was built and enclosed by an arched roof of stone slabs, which was then covered with earth. Some sections of the channel are tunnelled through solid rock. In all, 35 km (21.7 mi) of the aqueduct was constructed below the ground. The remainder had to be carried on the surface, either on a wall or on arched bridges. Some substantial remains of the above-ground works can still be seen today, such as the so-called "Pont Rue" that stretches for hundreds of metres around Vers and still stands up to 7.5 m (24.6 ft) high. However, the Pont du Gard is by far the best preserved section of the entire aqueduct.
The Pont du Gard
Built on three levels, the Pont is 49 m (160.8 ft) high above the river at low water and 274 m (899 ft) long. Its width varies from 9 m (29.5 ft) at the bottom to 3 m (9.8 ft) at the top. The three levels of arches are recessed, with the main piers in line one above another. The span of the arches varies slightly, as each was constructed independently to provide flexibility to protect against subsidence. Each level has a differing number of arches:| Level | Number of arches | Length of level | Thickness of piers | Height of arches |
| Lower (1st row) | 6 | 142 m (465.9 ft) | 6 m (19.7 ft) | 22 m (72.2 ft) |
| Middle (2nd row) | 11 | 242 m (794 ft) | 4 m (13.1 ft) | 20 m (65.6 ft) |
| Upper (3rd row) | 35 (originally 47) | 275 m (902.2 ft) | 3 m (9.8 ft) | 7 m (23 ft) |
The first level of the Pont du Gard adjoins a road bridge that was added in the 18th century. The water conduit or specus, which is about 1.8 m (5.9 ft) high and 1.2 m (3.9 ft) wide, is carried at the top of the third level. The upper levels of the bridge are slightly curved in the upstream directions, a fact long attributed to the engineers wanting to strengthen it against the flow of water, like a dam wall. However, a microtopographic survey carried out in 1989 showed that the bend is caused by the daily expansion and contraction of stones under the heat of the sun, by about 5 mm (0.196850393700787 in). Over the centuries, this process has produced the deformation witnessed now.
The Pont du Gard was constructed largely without the use of mortar or clamps. It contains an estimated 50,400 tons of stone with a volume of some 21,000 m³; some of the individual blocks weigh up to 6 tons. They were precisely cut to fit perfectly together by friction alone, eliminating the need for mortar. The builders also left inscriptions on the stonework conveying various messages and instructions. Many blocks were numbered and inscribed with the required locations, such as fronte dextra or fronte sinistra (front right or front left), to guide the builders.
The identity of the architect is unknown, but the method of construction is fairly well understood. The patron of the aqueduct – a rich individual or the city of Nîmes itself – would have hired a large team of contractors and skilled labourers. The route would have been planned by a surveyor or mensor, using a groma
Groma surveying
The Groma or gruma was the principal Roman surveying instrument. It comprised a vertical staff with horizontal cross pieces mounted at right-angles on a bracket. Each cross piece had a plumb line hanging vertically at each end...
for sighting, the chorobates
Chorobates
A chorobates was a kind of level used in classical antiquity. It was composed of a wooden frame, made in the form of a beam which was fitted with a water level, and two supports at the end of the beam. It is described by Vitruvius . It is believed to be the instrument that was used to level the...
for levelling, and a set of measuring poles five or ten Roman feet long. He would have recorded figures and perhaps drawn plans on wax tablets, later to be written up on scrolls. The builders may have used templates to guide them with tasks that required a high degree of precision, such as carving the standardised blocks from which the water conduit was constructed.
The builders would have made extensive use of cranes and block and tackle
Block and tackle
A block and tackle is a system of two or more pulleys with a rope or cable threaded between them, usually used to lift or pull heavy loads.The pulleys are assembled together to form blocks so that one is fixed and one moves with the load...
pulleys to lift the stones into place. Much of the work could have been done using simple sheers
Sheers
Sheers are a form of two-legged lifting device, that were used by sailboats and dockyards for tasks such as lifting masts and heavier parts of the rigging on board....
operated by a windlass
Windlass
The windlass is an apparatus for moving heavy weights. Typically, a windlass consists of a horizontal cylinder , which is rotated by the turn of a crank or belt...
. For the largest blocks, a massive human-powered treadmill would have been used; such machines were still being used in the quarries of Provence until as late as the start of the 20th century. A complex scaffold was erected to support the bridge as it was being built. Large blocks were left protruding from the bridge to support the frames and scaffolds used during construction. The stone came from local quarries. The aqueduct as a whole would have been a very expensive undertaking; Émile Espérandieu estimated the cost to be over 30 million sesterces.
Although the exterior of the Pont du Gard is rough and relatively unfinished, the builders took care to ensure that the interior of the water conduit was as smooth as possible so that the flow of water would not be obstructed. The walls of the conduit were constructed from dressed masonry and the floor from concrete. Both were covered with a stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
incorporating minute shards of pottery and tile. It was painted with olive oil and covered with maltha, a mixture of slaked lime, pork grease and the viscous juice of unripe figs. This produced a surface that was both smooth and durable.
The Pont du Gard's design represents a fairly early stage in the development of Roman aqueducts. Its designer's technique of stacking arches on top of each other is clumsy and expensive, as it necessitates the use of a very large amount of stone. Later aqueducts had a more sophisticated design, making greater use of concrete to reduce their volume and cost of construction. The Aqueduct of Segovia
Aqueduct of Segovia
The Aqueduct of Segovia is a Roman aqueduct and one of the most significant and best-preserved ancient monuments left on the Iberian Peninsula...
and the Aqüeducte de les Ferreres
Aqüeducte de les Ferreres
The Aqüeducte de les Ferreres is a Roman aqueduct in Catalonia, Spain built to supply water to the ancient city of Tarraco. The aqueduct is located 4 kilometers north of Tarragona, in the Autonomous Community of Catalonia...
are of roughly similar length but use far fewer arches. Roman architects were eventually able to do away with "stacking" altogether. The Acueducto de los Milagros
Acueducto de los Milagros
The Acueducto de los Milagros is a ruined Roman aqueduct in Mérida, Spain, formerly the Roman colony of Emerita Augusta....
in Mérida, Spain
Mérida, Spain
Mérida is the capital of the autonomous community of Extremadura, western central Spain. It has a population of 57,127 . The Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida is a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1993.- Climate :...
and a similar aqueduct near Cherchell
Cherchell
Cherchell is a seaport town in the Province of Tipaza, Algeria, 55 miles west of Algiers. It is the district seat of Cherchell District. As of 1998, it had a population of 24,400.-Ancient history:...
, Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
utilise tall, slender piers, constructed from top to bottom with concrete faced with masonry and brick.
History
The construction of the aqueduct has long been credited to AugustusAugustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
' son-in-law and aide, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was a Roman statesman and general. He was a close friend, son-in-law, lieutenant and defense minister to Octavian, the future Emperor Caesar Augustus...
, around the year 19 BC. At the time, he was serving as aedile
Aedile
Aedile was an office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enforce public order. There were two pairs of aediles. Two aediles were from the ranks of plebeians and the other...
, the senior magistrate responsible for managing the water supply of Rome and its colonies. Espérandieu, writing in 1926, linked the construction of the aqueduct with Agrippa's visit to Narbonensis in that year. Newer excavations, however, suggest the construction may have taken place between 40 and 60 AD. Tunnels dating from the time of Augustus had to be bypassed by the builders of the Nîmes aqueduct, and coins discovered in the outflow in Nîmes are no older than the reign of the emperor Claudius
Claudius
Claudius , was Roman Emperor from 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he was the son of Drusus and Antonia Minor. He was born at Lugdunum in Gaul and was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy...
(41-54 AD). On this basis, a team led by Guilherm Fabre has argued that the aqueduct must have been completed around the middle of the 1st century AD. It is believed to have taken about fifteen years to build, employing between 800 and 1,000 workers.
From the 4th century onwards, the aqueduct's maintenance was neglected as successive waves of invaders disrupted the region. It became clogged with debris, encrustations and plant roots, greatly reducing the flow of the water. The resulting deposits in the conduit, consisting of layers of dirt and organic material, are up to 50 cm (19.7 in) thick on each wall. Nonetheless it seems to have continued to supply water to Nimes until as late as the 9th century.
Although some of its stones were plundered for use elsewhere, the Pont du Gard remained largely intact. Its survival was due to its use as a toll bridge
Toll bridge
A toll bridge is a bridge over which traffic may pass upon payment of a toll, or fee.- History :The practice of collecting tolls on bridges probably harks back to the days of ferry crossings where people paid a fee to be ferried across stretches of water. As boats became impractical to carry large...
across the valley. In the 13th century the French king granted the seigneur
Seigneur
Seigneur may refer to:* The possessor of a seigneurie in medieval feudal or manorial systems.* The Seigneurial system of New France* The hereditary feudal ruler of the island of Sark, see also List of Seigneurs of Sark...
s of Uzès the right to levy tolls on those using the bridge. The right later passed to the Bishops of Uzès. In return, they were responsible for maintaining the bridge in good repair. However, it suffered serious damage during the 1620s when Henri, Duke of Rohan made use of the bridge to transport his artillery during the wars between the French royalists and the Hugenots, whom he led. To make space for his artillery to cross the bridge, the duke had one side of the second row of arches cut away to a depth of about one-third of their original thickness. This left a gap on the lowest deck wide enough to accommodate carts and cannons, but severely weakened the bridge in the process.
In 1702 the local authorities renovated the Pont du Gard to repair cracks, fill in ruts and replace the stones lost in the previous century. A new bridge was built by the engineer Henri Pitot
Henri Pitot
Henri Pitot was a French hydraulic engineer and the inventor of the Pitot tube.He became interested in studying the flow of water at various depths and was responsible for disproving the prevailing belief that speed of water increases with depth.In a Pitot tube the height of the fluid column is...
in 1743-47 next to the arches of the lower level, so that the road traffic could cross on a purpose-built bridge. The novelist Alexandre Dumas was strongly critical of the construction of the new bridge, commenting that "it was reserved for the eighteenth century to dishonour a monument which the barbarians of the fifth had not dared to destroy." However, the Pont du Gard continued to deteriorate and by the time Prosper Mérimée
Prosper Mérimée
Prosper Mérimée was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen.-Life:...
saw it in 1835 it was at serious risk of collapse from erosion and the loss of stonework.
Napoleon III, who had a great admiration for all things Roman, visited the Pont du Gard in 1850 and took a close interest in it. He approved plans by the architect Charles Laisné to repair the bridge in a project which was carried out between 1855–58, with funding provided by the Ministry of State. The work involved substantial renovations that included replacing the eroded stone, infilling some of the piers with concrete to aid stability and improving drainage by separating the bridge from the aqueduct. Stairs were installed at one end and the conduit walls were repaired, allowing visitors to walk along the conduit itself in reasonable safety.
There have been a number of subsequent projects to consolidate the piers and arches of the Pont du Gard. It has survived three serious floods over the last century; in 1958 the whole of the lower tier was submerged by a giant flood that washed away other bridges, and in 1998 another major flood affected the area. A further flood struck in 2002, badly damaging nearby installations.
Tourism
The Pont du Gard has been a tourist attraction for centuries. The outstanding quality of the bridge's masonry led to it becoming an obligatory stop for French journeymen masons on their traditional tour around the country (see Compagnons du Tour de FranceCompagnons du Tour de France
The Compagnons du Tour de France are a French organization of craftsmen and artisans dating from the Middle Ages, but still active today. Their traditional, technical education techniques includes taking a tour, the Tour de France around France and being the apprentice of competent masters...
), many of whom have left their names on the stonework. From the 18th century onwards, particularly after the construction of the new road bridge, it became a famous staging-post for travellers on the Grand Tour
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...
and became increasingly renowned as an object of historical importance and French national pride.
The bridge has had a long association with French monarchs seeking to associate themselves with a symbol of Roman imperial power. King Charles IX of France
Charles IX of France
Charles IX was King of France, ruling from 1560 until his death. His reign was dominated by the Wars of Religion. He is best known as king at the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.-Childhood:...
visited in 1564 during his Grand Tour of France and was greeted with a grand entertainment laid on by the Duc d'Uzès. Twelve young girls dressed as nymph
Nymph
A nymph in Greek mythology is a female minor nature deity typically associated with a particular location or landform. Different from gods, nymphs are generally regarded as divine spirits who animate nature, and are usually depicted as beautiful, young nubile maidens who love to dance and sing;...
s came out of a cave by the riverside near the aqueduct and presented the king with pastry and preserved fruits. A century later, Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
and his court visited the Pont du Gard during a visit to Nîmes in January 1660 shortly after the signature of the Treaty of the Pyrenees
Treaty of the Pyrenees
The Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed to end the 1635 to 1659 war between France and Spain, a war that was initially a part of the wider Thirty Years' War. It was signed on Pheasant Island, a river island on the border between the two countries...
. In 1786 his great-great-great-grandson Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
commissioned the artist Hubert Robert
Hubert Robert
Hubert Robert , French artist, was born in Paris.His father, Nicolas Robert, was in the service of François-Joseph de Choiseul, marquis de Stainville a leading diplomat from Lorraine...
to produce a set of paintings of Roman ruins of southern France to hang in the king's new dining room at the Palace of Fontainebleau, including a picture depicting the Pont du Gard in an idealised landscape. The commission was meant to reassert the ties between the French monarchy and the imperial past. Napoleon III, in the mid-19th century, consciously identified with the Roman emperor Augustus and accorded great respect to Roman antiquities; his patronage of the bridge's restoration in the 1850s was essential to its survival.
The Pont du Gard was added to UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
's list of World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
s in 1985. The description on the list states: "The hydraulic engineers and ... architects who conceived this bridge created a technical as well as artistic masterpiece." By this time, however, the site was congested with vehicle traffic – which was still allowed to drive over the 1743 road bridge – and was cluttered with illegally built structures and tourist shops lining the river banks. As the architect Jean-Paul Viguier
Jean-Paul Viguier
Jean-Paul Viguier is a French architect. He is considered one of the world's leading architects and one of the few French ones to work extensively outside of Europe...
put it, the "appetite for gain" had transformed the Pont du Gard into "a fairground attraction".
In 1996 the General Council of the Gard département began a major four-year project to improve the area, sponsored by the French government, in conjunction with local sources, UNESCO and the EU. The entire area around the bridge was pedestrianised and a new visitor centre was built on the north bank to a design by Jean-Paul Viguier. The redevelopment has ensured that the area around the Pont du Gard is now much quieter due to the removal of vehicle traffic, and the new museum provides a much improved historical context for visitors.
The Pont du Gard is today one of France's top five tourist attractions, with 1.4 million visitors reported in 2001.
Literary visitors
Since it became a tourist destination, many notable individuals have visited the Pont du Gard and written of the experience. Jean-Jacques RousseauJean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...
was overwhelmed when he first visited it in 1738:
The novelist Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
, visiting in 1884, was similarly impressed; he described the Pont du Gard as "unspeakably imposing, and nothing could well be more Roman." He commented:
Hilaire Belloc
Hilaire Belloc
Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, satirist, man of letters and political activist...
wrote in 1928 that "when one sees the thing all that is said of it comes true. Its isolation, its dignity, its weight, are all three awful. It looks as though it had been built long before all record by beings greater than ourselves, and were intended to stand long after the dissolution of our petty race. One can repose in it. I confess to a great reluctance to praise what has been praised too much; but so it is. A man, suffering from the unrest of our time, might do worse than camp out for three days, fishing and bathing under the shadow of the Pont du Gard."
See also
- Eifel AqueductEifel AqueductThe Eifel Aqueduct was one of the longest aqueducts of the Roman Empire.The aqueduct, constructed in AD 80, carried water some from the hilly Eifel region of what is now Germany to the ancient city of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium . If the auxiliary spurs to additional springs are included,...
- List of aqueducts in the city of Rome
- List of Roman aqueduct bridges
External links
- Official Pont du Gard museum website
- Location of Pont du Gard (Michelin)
- Photos of the aqueduct le Pont du Gard
- Full Aqueduct (Uzès to Nîmes) website (in French)
- Pont du Gard: Picture Galerie
- 600 Roman aqueducts with 35 descriptions in detail among which is the Pont du Gard
- Ancient Places TV: HD Video of the Pont du Gard