Pont au Change

The Pont au Change is a road bridge over the Seine in central Paris. It connects the Île de la Cité at the level of the Conciergerie to the right bank at the height of the Théâtre du Châtelet. It stands on the border between the first and fourth arrondissement. It was named because of the bridge to 1788 settled in the bridge houses exchange offices and banks. Translated it means swap or exchange bridge.

Data

  • Coordinates: 48 ° 51 ' 24 " N, 2 ° 20 ' 48" O48.8566666666672.3466666666667Koordinaten: 48 ° 51 ' 24 " N, 2 ° 20' 48" E
  • Length: 103 m
  • Width: 30 m (including road width of 18 m, and two sidewalks, each with 6 m)
  • Architects: Paul Martin Gallocher de Lagalisserie and Paul Vaudry
  • Construction: arch bridge with three supporting arches of 31 m length. The two pillars are protected by semi-circular stone bollards.
  • Construction: masonry
  • Construction period: 1858-1860
  • Location: Quai de la Mégisserie at Place du Châtelet and the Quai de l' Horloge

History

The first wooden bridge was built at this point probably dates from the end of the 9th century, shortly after the end of the raids of the Normans, see also Siege of Paris ( 885-886 ). She was the extension of the coming of Flanders and therefore opposite the old Roman bridge, which started coming from Soissons Rue Saint- Martin, economically important expectant Rue Saint- Denis. The bridge led directly from the Rive Droite to the royal palace on the Île de la Cité and therefore first carried the name Pont du Roi ( "King Bridge"). For their protection, a fastening, a castle, the Grand Châtelet was in contrast to the Petit Châtelet, built on the Petit Pont on the land side, that of after construction of the city wall by Philip Augustus, by which it had lost its protective function, the seat of the Prévôt, royal bailiff of Paris, courthouse and jail was included. Still called the place where the bridge meets the North Shore, Place du Châtelet and is one of the most important points of the city traffic accounts.

As usual in the Middle Ages, the bridge was built. 140 houses and 112 shops, plus mills, made ​​the bridge at the interchange point out to one of the economic centers of the city. 1411 Louis VII ordered the goldsmiths and money changers to settle on this bridge. The bridge had seven pillars. In the following centuries, the building changed its name again and again. Since the royal entourage after the move of the court in the Louvre went over this bridge to church to Notre Dame, was the bridge with some sculptures of French kings, including that of the young Louis XIV, decorated, which are in the Louvre today.

Historical paintings

  • Hubert Robert: Demolition of the Houses on the Pont au Change (1788 ). The picture shows the arch on bridge level above which the higher floors have already been canceled. Building materials are transported by ox cart. Location of the painting is the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.

Literary reference

In the novel Perfume by Patrick Süskind is located on the Pont au Change to the collapse of a bridge segment the house and the workshop of the perfumer Giuseppe Baldini.

The bridge is also the scene in Victor Hugo's novel Les Miserables. Inspector Javer plunges from the bridge, as he has lost faith in the justice.

1900, in the background, the Palais de Justice

656512
de