The Pont Neuf is the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris,
France. Its name, which was given to distinguish it from older bridges that
were lined on both sides with houses, has remained after all of those were
replaced. It stands by the western point of the Île de la Cité, the island in the
middle of the river that was the heart of medieval Paris.
The bridge is composed of two separate spans, one of five arches joining the
left bank to the Île de la Cité, another of seven joining the island to the right
bank. Old engraved maps of Paris show how, when the bridge was built, it just
grazed the downstream tip of the Île de la Cité; since then, the natural sandbar
building of a mid-river island, aided by stone-faced embankments called quais,
has extended the island. Today the tip of the island is the location of the
Square du Vert-Galant, a park named in honour of Henry IV, nicknamed the "Green
Gallant". Construction
As early as 1550, Henry II was asked to build a bridge here because the existing
Pont Notre-Dame was overloaded, but the expense was too much at the time.
In February 1578, the decision to build the bridge was made by King Henry III
who laid its first stone in 1578, during which year the foundations of four piers
and one abutment were completed. Pierre des Isles, one of the builders,
convinced the supervisory commission that the bridge, which was originally
straight, would be more resistant to the river currents, if its two sections were
built at a slight angle, a change they adopted in May 1578.
Further design changes were made during the summer of 1579. First, the number of
arches was changed from eight and four to seven and five. This was not a
problem on the north side, where nothing had been built, but on the south, where
the four piles and the abutment on the Left Bank were already laid, the
addition of the fifth arch necessitated reducing the length of the platform on
the island, the tere-plein, from 28.5 toise to about 19. Second, it was
decided to allow houses to be built on the bridge. This required the widening
of the bridge. The remaining piers were built over the next nine years. After a
long delay beginning in 1588, due in part to the Wars of Religion,
construction was resumed in 1599 under the reign of Henry IV. The bridge was
opened to traffic in 1604 and completed in July 1606. It was inaugurated by
Henri IV in 1607. Like most bridges of its time, The Pont
Neuf is constructed as a series of many short arch bridges, following Roman
precedents. It was the first stone bridge in Paris not to support houses in
addition to a thoroughfare, and was also fitted with pavements protecting
pedestrians from mud and horses; pedestrians could also step aside into
its bastions to let a bulky carriage pass. The decision not to include houses
on the bridge can be traced back directly to Henry IV, who decided
against their inclusion on the grounds that houses would impede a clear view of
the Louvre, which he extended substantially during his reign.
The bridge had heavy traffic from the beginning; it was for a long time the
widest bridge in Paris. The bridge has undergone much repair and renovation
work, including rebuilding of seven spans in the long arm and lowering of
the roadway by changing the arches from an almost semi-circular to elliptical
form, lowering of sidewalks and faces of the piers, spandrels, cornices and
replacing crumbled corbels as closely to the originals as possible. In 1885, one
of the piers of the short arm was undermined, removing the two adjacent
arches, requiring them to be rebuilt and all the foundations strengthened.
A major restoration of the Pont Neuf was begun in 1994 and was completed in 2007,
the year of its 400th anniversary. The Mascarons
The Mascarons are the stone masks, three hundred eighty-one in number, each one
different, which decorate the sides of the bridge. They are copies of the
originals attributed to the French Renaissance sculptor Germain Pilon.
The Mascarons represent the heads of forest and field divinities from ancient
mythology, as well as satyrs and sylvains. The original masks attributed
to the French Renaissance sculptor Germain Pilon, who also sculpted the
tomb of King Henry II of France and Queen Catherine de'Medici in the
Basilica of Saint-Denis just outside Paris. These masks remained in place
until 1851-54, when the bridge was completely rebuilt. At that time six
original mascarons from the 16th century were placed in the Musée Carnavalet,
along with eight molds of other originals. Eight other original
mascarons were first placed in the Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages, and are now
in the French National Museum of the Renaissance in Écouen. At the time of
the reconstruction the Renaissance masks were replaced with copies made by noted
19th century sculptors, including Maindron, Lavigne, Barye and Fontenelle.
Fontenelle made sixty-one masks which are found on the upstream side of the
bridge between the right bank and the Île-de-la-Cité.
Equestrian statue of Henry IV At the point where the bridge crosses
the Île de la Cité, there stands a bronze equestrian statue of King Henry
IV of France, originally commissioned from Giambologna under the orders of
Marie de Médicis, Henri’s widow and Regent of France, in 1614. After his
death, Giambologna's assistant Pietro Tacca completed the statue, which was
erected on its pedestal by Pietro Francavilla, in 1618. It was destroyed
in 1792 during the French Revolution, but was rebuilt in 1818, following the
restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. Bronze for the new statue was obtained
with the bronze from a statue of Louis Charles Antoine Desaix, as well as from
as from the statue of Napoleon in Place Vendome, which was melted down. The new
statue was cast from a mold made using a surviving cast of the original. Inside
the statue, the new sculptor François-Frédéric Lemot put four boxes,
containing a history of the life of Henry IV, a 17th-century parchment
certifying the original statue, a document describing how the new statue
was commissioned, and a list of people who contributed to a public
subscription. Execution of Jacques de Molay
The last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, was burned at
the stake on March 18, 1314, on the Île aux Juifs, a small island in the Seine
just west of the Île de la Cité. It was joined to the larger island when the
Point Nuef was built. The execution was ordered by Philippe le Bel after Jacques
retracted all of his previous confessions, which outraged Philip.
La Samaritaine Between 1712 and 1719, a large pump
house was built on the bridge and decorated with an image of the Samaritan
woman at the well. As a result, the structure was named La Samaritaine.
Years after it was torn down, Ernest Cognacq, a 19th-century merchant, set up
a stand on the site and gradually grew his business to what became, in 1869,
the department store La Samaritaine. As the center of Paris
All through the 18th century, the Pont Neuf was the center of Paris, lively
with both crime and commerce: Czar Peter the Great, who came to study
French civilization under the regency of the Duke d'Orleans, declared that he had
found nothing more curious in Paris than the pont Neuf; and, sixty years later,
the philosopher Franklin wrote to his friends in America that he had not
understood the Parisian character except in crossing the pont Neuf.
In 1862, Édouard Fournier traced its history in his lively two-volume
Histoire du Pont-Neuf. He describes how, even before it was completed, gangs hid
out in and around it and robbed and murdered people. It remained a dangerous
place even as it became busier. For a long time, the bridge even had its own
gallows. This did not prevent people from
congregating there, drawn by various stands and street performers. Charlatans
and quacks of various sorts were also common, as well as the hustlers and
pickpockets often found in crowds – not to mention a lively trade in
prostitution. Among the many businesses which, however, unofficially set up
there were several famous tooth pullers. In 1701, Cotolendi quoted a letter
supposedly written by a Sicilian tourist:
One finds on the Pont-Neuf an infinity of people who give tickets, some put
fallen teeth back in, and others make crystal eyes; there are those who cure
incurable illnesses; those who claim to have discovered the virtues of some
powdered stones to white and to beautify the face. This one claims he makes old
men young; there are those who remove wrinkles from the forehead and the eyes,
who make wooden legs to repair the violence of bombs; finally everybody is
so applied to work, so strongly and continually, that the devil can tempt no
one but on Holidays and Sundays. With its numerous sellers of pamphlets
and satirical performers, it was also a center for social commentary:
In the 16th cent. the Pont-Neuf was the scene of the recitals of Tabarin, a
famous satirist of the day, and it was long afterwards the favourite rendezvous
of news-vendors, jugglers, showmen, loungers, and thieves. Any popular
witticism in verse was long known as un Pont-Neuf.
In the seventeenth century, that bridge of memories, the old Pont Neuf of Paris,
was the rendezvous of quacksalvers and mountebanks. Booths for the sale of
various articles lined the sides of the bridge. People flocked there to see the
sights, laugh, chat, make love and enjoy life as only Parisians can. Students and
grisettes of the Quartier Latin elbowed ladies and gentlemen of the court.
Bourgeois families came to study the flippant manners of their superiors.
Poodle clippers plied their trade; jugglers amused the quid nuncs with
feats of dexterity; traveling dentists pulled teeth and sold balsams; clowns
tumbled; and last, but not least, pickpockets lifted purses and silk
handkerchiefs with impunity. Says Augustus J. C. Hare: "So central an
artery is the Pont Neuf, that it used to be a saying with the Parisian police,
that if, after watching three days, they did not see a man cross the bridge, he
must have left Paris." Any popular witticism in verse was long known as un
Pont-Neuf. One of the principal vendors of quack nostrums of the Pont Neuf was
Montdor. He was aided by a buffoon named Tabarin, who made facetious replies to
questions asked by his master, accompanied with laughable grimaces and
grotesque gestures. The modern ringmaster and clown of the circus have
similar scenes together, minus the selling of medicines.
Under Louis XV, thieves and entertainers were joined by recruiters, or "sellers
of human flesh", who did their best to lure newcomers to Paris and others "with
as much violence as the sale of Negros in the Congo". Silversmiths and other
luxury businesses nearby drew visitors as well.
One yearly event, held on the nearby Place Dauphine, prefigured the Salon des
Refusés which would later give rise to the Impressionists. During the
celebration of the Corpus Christi, the Place Dauphine hosted one of the most
magnificent reposoirs. Along with all the rich silverwork and
tapestries placed on it, some local silversmiths ordered paintings for
these. This led to art dealers being asked to participate and ultimately to
the newest talents being shown at the Petite Fête-Dieu, a reduced version of
the Corpus Christi holiday which took place eight days later. Though their
canvases were only shown from six in the morning to noon, this became an
important opportunity for unknown artists to draw attention. Among other
things, this led to the painters there signing their work, as was not frequent
in the Salon – which was not always an advantage when the work was publicly and
loudly critiqued. Showing works which often had no
pretense of a religious subject, they might then be noticed and find an entree
into the official Academy. Chardin is one of the most famous painters to have
started this way. In 1720, a young man of about
twenty-two, son of the man who maintained the king's billiards,
displayed a canvas here showing an antique bas-relief. J.-B. Vanloo passed
by, looked at the canvas for a long time, found great qualities there, and
bought it. He wanted afterwards to know the young painter, encouraged him, gave
him advice, of which the latter perhaps had no need, got him work, which was
more useful, and eight years later, the unknown of the place Dauphine was his
colleague at the Academy of Painting.... he was called Jean-Baptiste-Siméon
Chardin. The slow decline of the bridge's central
role began in 1754: "Starting in 1754, the first year of the vogue, the madness
of the boulevards, it was no longer the thing to talk about the Cours [the
Champs-Elysées], and still less of this poor Pont-Neuf. To the Boulevard, at
once, long live the Boulevard!". Still the bridge remained a lively place
through the end of the century. With time, people became wary of its
reputation and other changes subdued its atmosphere. In 1840, Lacroix wrote:
"Once the pont Neuf was a perpetual fair; at present, it is just a bridge to
be crossed without stopping." First daguerrotype ever with human
being? About two years before Daguerre made his
famous daguerrotype of the Boulevard du Temple, where a human being is
recognizable, the inventor photographed other places in Paris to experiment the
new technique in plein air. In the very first example of his own attempts, he
made an image of the Pont Neuf and the equestrian statue of Henry IV. Since
early images were mirrored, at the left side of the statue one can clearly see
one worker(s) lying under the statue shadow.
Christo's project In 1985, after years of negotiation with
the mayor of Paris, the art duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped the Pont Neuf.
Access See also
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, a film by Leos Carax, released in 1991.
List of crossings of the River Seine Notes
Bibliography Baedeker, Karl. Paris and environs: with
routes from London to Paris and from Paris to the Rhine and Switzerland,
eighth revised edition. Leipzig: Karl Baedeker. Copy at Google Books.
Ballon, Hilary. The Paris of Henri IV: Architecture and Urbanism. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN 9780262023092.
Cotolendi, Charles. Saint-Evremoniana: Ou Receuil de diverses piéces curieuses.
Amsterdam: Pierre Mortier. Copy at Google Books. Note: "The author affixed
the name of Saint-Evremont in order to quicken the sale".
Evans, Henry Ridgely. The Old and the New Magic. Chicago: The Open Court
Publishing Co. Copy at Google Books. Fournier Édouard. Histoire du Pont-Neuf.
Paris: E. Dentu. Vol. 1 and vol. 2 at Google Books.
Lacroix, Paul. Curiosités de l'histoire du vieux Paris. Paris: Adolphe Delahays.
Copy at Google Books. Lasteyrie, R. de. "Documents inédits sur
la construction du Pont-Neuf," Mémoires de la Société de l'Histoire de Paris et
de l'Ile de France, vol. 9, pp. 1–94. Copy at Gallica.
Metman, Yves, editor. Le Registre ou plumitif de la construction du Pont
Neuf: archives nationales Z1f 1065. Paris: Service des travaux historiques
de la Ville de Paris. OCLC 21504748. Strohmayer, Ulf. "Engineering Vision:
the Pont-Neuf in Paris and Modernity", pp. 75–92, in The City and the Senses:
Urban Culture since 1500, edited by A. Cowan and J. Steward. Basingstoke:
Ashgate. ISBN 9780754684237. Whitney, Charles S.. Bridges of the
World: Their Design and Construction. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications.
ISBN 9780486429953. External links
Tourist review About Pont Neuf Bridge in Paris
(French) France Pittoresque: Histoire du Pont Neuf