Pont des Marchands

About

The Pont des Marchands is a bridge in Narbonne, Occitanie, originally dating back to Roman times. It crosses the Robine Canal and has the peculiarity of being one of the only still inhabited bridges of France. The Roman bridge crossed the Atax, the Aude, whose bed was diverted during the Middle Ages and which is now occupied by the Robin Canal.

This Roman bridge is very well preserved but is nowadays difficult to discern because its six or seven arches and ramps of access are drowned in the surrounding building, serving as cellars to the houses that have surmounted the bridge since medieval times and have transformed the roadway into a continuous street, giving no more visibility on the watercourse. The Robine Canal, passing under the only arch still visible, is a vestige of the old bed of the Aude, whose course changed during late antiquity and then in the Middle Ages. Following the construction of a lock downstream, the water level was raised by several metres, masking a little more the perception of the remaining arch piles.