Pont Binot or Devil's bridge, Charente
Poitou-Charentes myths, legends and history
Pont Binot, or Devil’s Bridge
I hope you are enjoying reading about the myths, legends and history of the Poitou-Charentes at least as much as I am enjoying revisiting some of my favourite places and stories. Last week it was the wells of hell, so it seemed appropriate to recount the tale of the Devil’s bridge this week. I will add links at the end to the other posts in this series, in case you have missed any.
Not far from Confolens in the Charente department, there is a stone bridge crossing the river Issoire that has featured a few times on our cycling adventures. I do have a thing for bridges and with its pale stonework glowing in the golden sunshine, and the river peacefully flowing beneath the arches, we’ve always paused to take a photo or two here. What I didn’t know until stumbling upon a podcast recently was that there has been river crossing here since Roman times and that this pretty bridge has long been known as Devil’s Bridge.
According to the legend about Pont Binot, the Devil lived a peaceful life beside the Issoire river for many years, until the locals began building a bridge. The clattering of carriage wheels over cobbles disturbed his tranquillity so much, he took action. Every evening, he hurtled across their bridge in his cart pulled by enormous beasts, destroying the construction work as their stones tumbled into the river. The villagers prayed to God and protested to the Devil, but he wouldn’t budge.
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| The majestic 43-metre-high bell tower in Lesterps, dating from the 11th century |
One day, someone had the idea to use stones from an ancient, ruined abbey, ten kilometres away in Lesterps, reasoning that consecrated stones that had been blessed many times over the years might just stand up to the Devil. The stones were transported by the villagers, a new bridge was built and when it was finished, it was blessed once more, just for good measure. During a wild and stormy night, the Devil tried to demolish the bridge again, but this time to no avail. Realising he had been defeated by a more powerful force, he gave up and now sits for all eternity on the banks of the Issoire, transformed into a large rock with a rounded back (that is just about visible at the bottom left of the photo).
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| The large rock said to be the devil |
While it is true that there are many similar stories to this, about different bridges in different locations in France, there is something special about this almost hidden bridge that I think makes it worthy of a legend. Although I do have to acknowledge that as this current bridge only dates from the nineteenth century, maybe the Devil did eventually get his revenge on the original bridge. I guess we will never know.
A stone’s throw from the Devil’s bridge is the tourist site of Coriobona. Built by the Gaulois d’Esse Association, it is a reconstruction of the buildings and objects of a life-size, small, fortified Gaulois settlement, that enables visitors to discover the history of the Lémovices, a Gallic people from the Limousin who date back over two thousand years. Sadly, much as I love associations like this who bring history to life, we have not yet had the opportunity to visit. Its opening times are rather limited and seem to clash with my work at the Château de Javarzay.
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| Map of France showing Roman towns |
As for the Romans, who invaded the lands of the Gaul’s, giving rise to the Gallo-Roman period of French history, we live within a triangle of Poitiers (Limonum) to the north, Saintes (Mediolanum Santonum) to the southwest and Limoges (Augustoritum) to the southeast. The Romans built roads connecting these towns to each other and onto Lyon (Lugdunum) in the east, on the Voie d’Agrippa. It is therefore no surprise that they were the first to create a river crossing at this site and that we don’t have to go too far from home to find vestiges of Roman life in the Poitou-Charentes. In fact, long before the Renaissance château was built at Javarzay, it was the site of a Gallo-Roman farm, called Gavarciacum, the domain that belonged to Gavarcus – which is where the name Javarzay originates from.
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| Roman amphitheatre Saint-Cybardeaux, Charente |
Our travels by bike this year, although more limited than previous years, have still taken us to huge amphitheatres, the remains of villas and an impressive underground aqueduct that supplied water to Saintes.
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| Roman underground aqueduct, Charente-Maritime |
To discover more about Roman life in our area, I can recommend a visit to the fascinating Ruaranum museum in Rom. Situated in what is now a small rural village of a few hundred inhabitants, it was once a major stopover town and home to over four thousand people, as well as commerces, trades and the all-important Roman baths – part of which can still be seen. This gem of a museum houses an array of artifacts found during local archaeological digs, as well as maps and explanations of life in the Roman empire and for a small village, was a huge surprise. There are also arial photographs showing traces of the Roman buildings that can still be seen in the farmland today, revealing just how large and important Rom or Ruaranum was.
Links to previous posts:
Whooping cough, headdresses and heartthrobs
I hope you all have a lovely Christmas however and wherever you celebrate. Without Mini, ours will be different this year, plus Ed has just moved flats, so Christmas preparations were overtaken by packing, lists and flat-pack furniture building this week, but we will be spending Christmas Day together, in his new flat, enjoying family time and simple, homemade food (so long as the new oven arrives and I can work out how to use it). Wish me luck!
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