Pont du Gard
43.9472424.535229Koordinaten: 43 ° 56 ' 50.1 "N, 4 ° 32' 6.8 " E
F1
The Pont du Gard is a Roman aqueduct in southern France on the territory of the municipality verse -Pont -du -Gard in the department of Gard. The bridge is of impressive height and includes one of the best preserved water channels from the Roman period in France. The Pont du Gard is one of the most important surviving bridges of the ancient Roman world and is one of the main attractions of southern France.
Pont du Gard translates Gard Bridge. The river Gard is nowadays usually called Gardon, he is also the name of the department is derived.
Description of the bridge
The Pont du Gard was part of a nearly 50 km long aqueduct, with the water from the springs near Ucetia ( Uzès ) to the Roman city Nemausus (Nîmes ) was transported. The bridge is 49 meters high and covers three floors:
- Lower level: 6 arches, 142 m long, 6 m wide, 22 m high
- Middle level: 11 arches, 242 m long, 4 m wide, 20 m high
- Upper level: 35 arches, 275 m long, 3 m wide, 7 m high
On the upper level the rectangular channel, the water line, which is 1.80 m high and 1.20 m wide and has a gradient of 0.4 per cent passes.
On the lower and middle floor of the bridge arches are from 61 up to 6 ton voussoirs. The pillars of the middle level are superposed exactly on the piers of the lower floor to minimize the load on the lower arches. The arch span, starting from the middle towards the shore getting smaller.
History of the bridge and the water line
It was long believed, the aqueduct was built around the year 19 BC. However, recent excavations point to an origin in the middle of the 1st century AD. The bridge was built to overcome the valley of the river Gardon ( who was called in Roman times Vardo fluvius ). Approximately 20,000 cubic meters of water flowed after the completion of daily over the aqueduct to Nîmes. Nemausus at the time had about 20,000 inhabitants, thus theoretically were each inhabitant 1 cubic meter of water a day. About two-thirds of the water line ran not, however, above ground, but had to be carved into the rock. The entire aqueduct had an average slope of 24 cm / km. How does the former builders have hired such an exact calculation, is still unclear. Because the aqueduct to Nîmes has no straight course. The straight line between source and destination is indeed only 20 km, but in between there are various rock formations. One therefore had long detours to accept and so came to a total length of 50 km. Nevertheless, the overall height difference is on this 50 km no higher than 12 m, and that, although we also had to take on the special structural requirements of the individual sections into consideration during construction.
Since the 4th century, the maintenance of the water line was visibly neglected deposits filled up to two thirds of the water channel. In the course of the 9th century, the aqueduct was completely useless and the people around began removing the stones of the water line and to use it for other purposes.
Already in the Middle Ages and until the 18th century, the Pont du Gard was used as a road bridge. To this end, even the pillars of the second floor were tapered to facilitate the flow of traffic. 1702 the pillars were repaired. Thus, the traffic could cross the river without stressing the Roman construction continues, originated in 1747 next to the aqueduct a new road bridge, which runs in the height of the lower level of the aqueduct.
The road bridge has now been closed off to traffic. Near the Pont du Gard, a museum, a visitor center and parking are set up.
The aqueduct Pont du Gard was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1985.
Method of construction
The Pont du Gard aqueduct is built in opus quadratum ( Roman ashlar construction ), that is, there were used Cretaceous limestones, which were all the same height and were obtained from quarries in the Gorges du Gardon. The building material consisted of coarse, yellow urgonischem limestone, with no mortar had to be used because the stones against each other held together by the existing pressure and the resulting frictional forces.
About 1,000 men worked for three years on the structure. You were chisels, mallets, angle, level, shovel, construction cranes with pulleys as tools and resources available. The cranes were driven by men who ran on a treadmill.
All along the walls protrude irregular stones in which the scaffolding in the construction were anchored. It was allowed to stand after completion in order to use them with any repairs can again. It is also possible that the facade was no longer straightened lack of money at the end and the projecting stones were therefore maintained. This results in a style element that is in Romanesque churches and other structures still see today developed.