The legend, told on the bridge’s own audioguide, is that a shepherd boy named Bénézet was ordered by a voice from heaven to build a bridge at Avignon in 1177, proved his commission by lifting a stone no one else could move, and died before it was finished. Whoever actually built it, the crossing went up in the late 12th century and it mattered enormously: for centuries it was the only fixed bridge on the lower Rhône between Lyon and the sea, and it linked the Kingdom of France on the west bank with the Empire on the east.
It was about 920 m long, four metres wide and carried on 22 arches, striding over the Île de la Barthelasse in the middle of the river. Four arches survive. The Rhône took the rest in instalments — it was broken in war, rebuilt in the 13th century, and repeatedly wrecked by floods until the great inundation of 1669 knocked out most of what was left and the town gave up paying for repairs. St Bénézet’s relics were removed in 1674 as the structure threatened to go.
On the second pier stands the Chapelle Saint-Nicolas, in two storeys — a Romanesque lower chapel of the late 12th century for the bridge brotherhood, and a Gothic upper chapel added later when the roadway was raised. Bénézet himself was buried in it. It is the one piece of medieval architecture on the bridge and most people photograph it from the bank without ever going inside.
About the song. Sur le pont d’Avignon in its familiar form is not medieval: the tune everyone knows was popularised by Adolphe Adam for an opéra-comique staged in Paris in 1853. Older versions run sous — under — the bridge, and the dancing is generally explained as happening in the taverns and open ground of the Île de la Barthelasse, in the shade of the arches, rather than on a four-metre roadway full of carts.
The visit takes about 35 minutes, includes an audioguide in eleven languages and a 3D reconstruction of the full bridge, and there is a lift: the monument carries the Tourisme & Handicap label. Free supervised luggage storage is available at the entrance, which is useful on a train-day stop.
