The
four subsisting arches were, with the bridge chapel, restored during the
last century. The old bridge formed an elbow upstream on the Villeneuve
branch of the Rhone.
The chapel of St. Nicholas, too, has suffered many vicissitudes. The
primitive Romanesque building was raised to the level of the new footway
by dividing the nave into two floors and building a flight of steps,
supported on a squinch arch, down to what then became the lower chapel.
Much battered during the sieges of the palace, it was restored and
reconsecrated in 1411 and a century later the Gothic upper apse was added,
whose external walls overtop the old nave. In consequence of these
modifications the lower chapel has a Gothic nave and a Romanesque apse,
whereas the upper chapel has a Gothic apse and a Romanesque nave.
The "Pont d'Avignon" is known to every French-speaking child, and with
many variants the old "ronde" is sung and danced from the remotest plains
of Canada to the valleys of the Swiss Alps. The good folk of Avignon,
however, protest that their "rondes" were not danced perilously on the
narrow Pont St.
Pages:
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202