The Bridges of Chartres

The Bouju Bridge was, for a long time, the city’s most important bridge; it was also called “Grand Pont” and the “Pont du Château” because it served the village where the counts’ chateaus were located. There was no mention of it before 1300. It could have replaced a drawbridge that gave access to the château’s farmyard. One could find there, during the 14th century, the Tibelin Mill and the Saint-Maurice canonesses’ commonplace oven. This bridge owes its name to a resident family that lived in Chartres during the second half of the 18th century. Up until the middle of the 18th century, travelers who came from Paris crossed this bridge so they could get to the upper town. They were sometimes hindered by the houses that were built along its sides. The last of these houses disappeared in 1871. On the upstream side, the paving of a drinking trough survives; it is visible when river waters are low. De Bourg Street (formerly known as du Bourg-du-Château Street), which adjoins the bridge, has conserved the majority of its half-timbered houses.

The name “Pont des Minimes” refers to the monastery of monks (an order founded by Saint-François de Paule) that was set up some time after 1615. The entrance gate can still be seen, along the bridge’s alignment, at the end of de la Corroirie Street. During the Revolution this bridge was renamed, like a lot of others. It was given the name “Pont des Casernes,” which referred to the cavalry barracks that had been set up not too far away, left of the Coin-Cornu impasse). Those barracks, which were built during the middle of the 18th century, were used until 1840. The bridge closes off a rather vast stretch of smooth water that was, until the 16th century, Chartres’ port dock (without a doubt, a rather modest one).

The Ponceau Mill, which was very close by, took the name of “the little bridge,” in relation to the neighboring Minimes Bridge. At the least, would “Ponceau” been a resident’s name?

Development of a bypass route along Tour-de-Ville’s boulevards started around 1765 and lasted 70 years. The construction of Neuf Bridge, plans for which were finalized in 1783, was carried out between 1806 and 1809. The entrepreneur Chasles (father of the future Deputy Mayor of Chartres), who had already grown wealthy through trafficking goods inside of the country, got authorization to exploit cheap labor: Prussian and Spanish prisoners of war! Navigation along the Eure, which had been active during the time of the Gauls (Chartres’ Celtic name had been Autrikon, which means “port on the Eure”), was pursued to a very great extent until the 16th century and was finally ruined because of the religious wars, after 1560. The port was, without a doubt, rudimentary; it must have then been found close to the Saint-André church. The Neuf Bridge, like a lot of other bridges around Chartres, was cut off by the retreating German army on August 16, 1944. The wooden bridge, which was done away with following this sabotage, was replaced several years later by a stone construction that looked identical to the same.

This bridge owes its name to the parish church that formerly was on the neighboring spot, next to the Saint-Père abbey church. It had an important role since it allowed the route that came from Orléans to cross the Eure so that the center of the town could be reached. Built in 1106, Saint-Hilaire Church was used by the parish until it was demolished under the Revolution. The Saint-Hilaire parish once one of the most populated in the town; it was mostly inhabited by artisans and textile workers, such as spinners, weavers, fullers, and dyers whose establishments were set up along the shores of the river. The big house on top of the arches, which is close to the bridge, is perhaps one of the moneychanger establishments from the 16th century. At the time of the Revolution, the Société Populaire des Sans-Culottes used the church as its meeting room before it was demolished. The bridge was then renamed “Pont des Sans-Culottes.” In 1944, since all the bridges that had been set up on Fossé-Neuf had been deemed impassable, the American army’s vanguard had to make use of this bridge to go forward with its advance.

Formerly known as the Seven Arches Bridge (they were actually not more than six), and then the Bureau Bridge (most likely because of its proximity to the Saint-André Hospice, which had a welfare office), its current name does not refer to the killings that took place nearby at the time of the 1568 and 1591 sieges. Instead, it brings to mind the massacre or neighboring slaughterhouse that had been in existence during the 16th century. The revolutionaries showed they did not lack a sense of humor when they renamed it “Regeneration Bridge!”  Before that time, there was an old, fortified structure that was called “Vieux Château,” there, where King Louis XI wanted to have a manor house built. François 1st sold that piece of land back to the town in 1520. Downstream, the Léthinière Gate barred passage along the river. The chapel located at the end of the bridge, which was called the Brèche Chapel, was erected in recognition of the protection that the Virgin Mary is said to have given to the town during the Siege of 1585 by gathering enemy cannon fire into the folds of her mantle. Around the upstream area, winnowing was carried out at the Welfare Office’s mill, which was close to the hospice.

This bridge is certainly the oldest in Chartres. During the 14th century, it was used a dam for several mills:  the Saint-Père Mill and the Morts Mill (which were brought together under the name Saint-Père Mill, for the benefit of the nearby abbey), and Herle Mill (which also was later incorporated into the Saint-Père Mill). It was first made of wood; however, it is not known during what period it was reconstructed in stone. In 1892, a gate that allowed workers in town to go and clean out the river was built under its arches. Only its frame remains today.

It is the Taillard Bridge that crosses over the river, down-river from Saint-Hilaire Bridge. During the 11th century, the Saint-Père Abbey comes up with a name for it:  “pons Mergentis pediculi,” which means “sinking louse bridge.” Historians have offered an explanation for this nonsensical phrase: the scribe must have heard the word “pou” said, which made him think of the parasite: since the word had to do with lice, it referred to a swamp. Therefore, in effect, it meant the “bridge over the sinking swamp.” It was first know as “Pont de l’Abreuvoir” during the 13th century, then “Pont Tailhard,” or “Taillard;” it gets its name from pleyons (refers to wickerwork or wooden links) that were carved from wood found along the slope, or even at the pleyons market nearby. During the 16th century, it was the only bridge in town with houses on top of it. During the Revolution, it was called “Pont Tricolore.”

During the Gallo-Roman period, the town extended beyond this border. But by 1100 all the habitations had disappeared and space for different cultures was opened up. The name of a person called “Morard” was given to the town gate, which was then constructed at this spot. The moat was dug during 1357 because of threats from the English. The wooden bridge that crossed over it was replaced by a stone bridge in 1747. The gate, which is of no architectural significance, was demolished in 1847. During August of 1944, the retreating German army made all the bridges that spanned the ditch unserviceable, with the exception of this one, which two courageous residents of that neighborhood saved. Its saving allowed the Allies to go on, without delay, with their victorious advance.