Pont du Diable, Saint-Jean-de-Fos, France

The Pont du Diable on the Hérault River is one of many bridges in France with this name (it means Devil's bridge). Constructed by Benedictine monks in the first half of the 11th century, it provided a link between the abbey at Aniane and the Gellone Abbey at Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert. Though subsequently widened and raised several metres around 1770, it has retained its original shape. Vehicular traffic is now catered for by a newer bridge, from which splendid views may be had of the original bridge and an aqueduct that takes water to the vineyards of Saint-Jean-de-Fos.

The bridge has been listed by the French Ministry of Culture as a monument historique since 1935 and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the World Heritage Sites of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France.

References:

Wikipedia

User Reviews

Alison Cowpe (15 months ago)
Dramatic gauge. But busy with schoolchildren.

Marie-Caroline Caron (18 months ago)
One of the most beautiful place I've seen ?

nurul novelia Fuandila (2 years ago)
It is astonishing place and can access by public transportation. For canoeing we need to pay just around €15 for 1 hour. The color water is totally amazing.

Lauren Foster (2 years ago)
Very busy but a lovely place to swim and dive on a hot day after walking round the Clamousse Caves - my teens loved jumping off the rocks. Plenty of quiet places to sit in the shade if you prefer that to the hot packed beach.

Black Hero (2 years ago)
Great possibility to swim; not too many people. We will definitly come back!

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Broch of Gurness

The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village. Settlement here began sometime between 500 and 200 BC. At the centre of the settlement is a stone tower or broch, which once probably reached a height of around 10 metres. Its interior is divided into sections by upright slabs. The tower features two skins of drystone walls, with stone-floored galleries in between. These are accessed by steps. Stone ledges suggest that there was once an upper storey with a timber floor. The roof would have been thatched, surrounded by a wall walk linked by stairs to the ground floor. The broch features two hearths and a subterranean stone cistern with steps leading down into it. It is thought to have some religious significance, relating to an Iron Age cult of the underground.

The remains of the central tower are up to 3.6 metres high, and the stone walls are up to 4.1 metres thick. The tower was likely inhabited by the principal family or clan of the area but also served as a last resort for the village in case of an attack.

The broch continued to be inhabited while it began to collapse and the original structures were altered. The cistern was filled in and the interior was repartitioned. The ruin visible today reflects this secondary phase of the broch's use.

The site is surrounded by three ditches cut out of the rock with stone ramparts, encircling an area of around 45 metres diameter. The remains of numerous small stone dwellings with small yards and sheds can be found between the inner ditch and the tower. These were built after the tower, but were a part of the settlement's initial conception. A 'main street' connects the outer entrance to the broch. The settlement is the best-preserved of all broch villages.

Pieces of a Roman amphora dating to before 60 AD were found here, lending weight to the record that a 'King of Orkney' submitted to Emperor Claudius at Colchester in 43 AD.

At some point after 100 AD the broch was abandoned and the ditches filled in. It is thought that settlement at the broch continued into the 5th century AD, the period known as Pictish times. By that time the broch was not used anymore and some of its stones were reused to build smaller dwellings on top of the earlier buildings. Until about the 8th century, the site was just a single farmstead.

In the 9th century, a Norse woman was buried at the site in a stone-lined grave with two bronze brooches and a sickle and knife made from iron. Other finds suggest that Norse men were buried here too.

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