Pont Julien

Pont Julien
Pont Julien
Carries	Via Domitia
Crosses	Calavon
Locale	Near Bonnieux, Vaucluse, France
Design	Arch bridge
Material	Limestone
Total length	85 m
Width	5.50 m
Longest span	16.3 m
Number of spans	3
Clearance below	9 m
Construction end	3 BC
Pont Julien

The Pont Julien (French for Julian Bridge) is a Roman stone arch bridge over the Calavon river in the south-east of France dating to 3 BC.

View of the Pont Julien

It is located in the territory of the commune of Bonnieux, north of the village of the same name, and 8km west of Apt. Originally, it was built on the Via Domitia, an important Roman road which connected Italy to the Roman territories in France. It was used for car traffic until 2005, when a replacement bridge was built to preserve it from wear and tear. This amounts to some 2000 years of uninterrupted use.

The bridge's natural stones were cut to a precise fit, and were not cemented with any mortar.

See also

• List of Roman bridges
• Roman architecture
• Roman engineering

References

• Murati, Philippe (1994). Ponts de Provence. Nice. pp. 19–20. 
• O’Connor, Colin (1993), Roman Bridges, Cambridge University Press, pp. 96f. (G5), ISBN 0-521-39326-4 

External links

Media related to Pont Julien at Wikimedia Commons

• Pont Julien at Structurae
• Traianus – Technical investigation of Roman public works