Pont de la Tournelle

The Pont de la Tournelle (Tournelle Bridge in English), is an arch bridge spanning the river Seine in Paris.

History

The location of the Pont de la Tournelle is the site of successive structures.

The first, a wooden bridge, was built in 1620. This bridge connected the Eastern bank of the Seine (le quai Saint-Bernard) to l'île Saint-Louis. It was subsequently washed away by ice in 1637, and again on 21 January 1651. A stone bridge was erected in its place in 1654. It was demolished in 1918 and replaced by the current bridge in 1928, after it suffered several natural disasters, especially the flood of 1910.

The Pont de la Tournelle was intentionally built lacking symmetry, in order to emphasize the shapeless landscape in the part of the Seine that it bestrides. Consisting of a grand central arch that links the riverbanks via two smaller arches, one on each side, it's decorated on the Eastern bank with a pylon built on the left pier's cutwater, and a statue of Saint Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris, atop of the pylon, designed by Polish-French monumental sculptor Paul Landowski.

The term "Tournelle" traces its origin to a square turret (French: tourelle) constructed at the end of the 12th Century on the fortress of Phillipe Auguste.

Numerous scenes of Highlander: The Series were filmed along the Quai de la Tournelle near and underneath Pont de la Tournelle between 1992 and 1998.

Access

See also

• List of crossings of the River Seine

References

External links

Media related to Pont de la Tournelle at Wikimedia Commons

• (in French) Bridge history
• (in French) More bridge history