Evolution of bridges and channels of the Loire River between La Charité-sur-Loire and La Chapelle-Montlinard
Évolution des ponts et du lit mineur de la Loire, entre La Charité-sur-Loire et la Chapelle-Montlinard
Résumé
The Loire River is the longest river in France, where the building of bridges and their long-term maintenance have never been easy tasks, because of strong currents and frequent floods. At a distance of 500 km from its source, between La Charité-sur-Loire and La Chapelle-Montlinard, the remains of a medieval bridge were recently discovered. A multidisciplinary approach is used to reconstruct the long history of building maintenance and re-building of these bridges, which occurred several times, over eight centuries, after their destruction by natural causes or human activity. For this purpose, the study of archival literature (texts and maps) was combined with underwater archaeology, dendrochronology, building archaeology, and geomorphological landscape analyses. Although this is an ongoing research project, sufficient data have been collected to allow the presentation of a preliminary series of results.
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La Loire constitue un obstacle à franchir impérativement si l’on veut garantir la circulation pérenne des biens et des personnes à l’échelle du territoire et de son réseau de voies terrestres. Fleuve dit « sauvage », ayant la réputation de malmener les ponts, il a cependant conservé les vestiges de certains de ces ouvrages qui constituent des aménagements marquants dans le paysage fluvial. Entre La Charité-sur-Loire et La Chapelle-Montlinard, les prospections archéologiques, l’étude des archives et l’analyse du bâti ancien permettent de restituer, sur huit siècles, différentes étapes de construction et de destruction de ponts.
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