Seen in today's entry is Pont d'Avignon (also known as Pont Saint-Bénezet), the famous medieval bridge in the town of Avignon, France. The bridge was built between 1171 and 1185, and it had an original length of nearly a kilometer. However, the construction of the bridge was a bit shoddy, and as a result, the bridge suffered frequent collapses during floods. Over the centuries, the arches of the bridge would collapse, only to be replaced by temporary wooden sections, which wouldn't hold for a very long time.

The demise of the bridge came via the catastrophic flood of 1668, which swept away much of Pont d'Avignon's foundation. The bridge was then taken out of service and ultimately abandoned with no future repairs for it planned. Since 1668, its surviving arches have successively collapsed or been demolished, and only four of the initial 22 arches remain intact today (as you can see in the image, which is an HDR image).

The bridge's construction was inspired by Saint Bénézet, a local shepherd boy who (according to tradition) was commanded by angels to build a bridge across the river:

A young shepherd by the name of Bénezet came to Avignon from his native Ardèche, in 1177. He said that he was sent by God to build a bridge in Avignon. At first, he was considered to be crazy, stating that he had heard a voice from heaven say to him: “ Bénezet, take your shepherd’s staff and go down to Avignon, the capital of the river. You shall talk to the inhabitants, and you shall tell them that a bridge has to be built.'

One Sunday during a religious feast day, as the Bishop of Avignon was giving his blessing on the esplanade in front of the church, Bénezet spoke to him and said: “Lord Bishop, I have been sent by the All-Powerful to build a bridge over the Rhône…”

Mocked by the crowd, the shepherd was challenged by the bishop to lift an enormous stone onto his shoulders, and toss it into the Rhône. Bénezet did not hesitate and before the gaze of the amazed crowd, proceeded to lift an enormous block of stone and heave it into the water, assisted, it is said, by divine intervention, even by angels surrounded by a golden light.


Today, there is a famous song called 'Sur le pont d'Avignon' which tour guides might (will) sing to you if you ever visit Avignon on a tour. The bridge is located on the outskirts of the city of Avignon, and there are signs all over the city pointing the way to 'Pont d'Avignon,' sometimes simply stated as 'Pont.'

On April 1, 2009 I mentioned that I would highlight one photographer every single day during the month of April. For the first fifteen days, I mentioned photoblogs to check out. The rest of the month I will be focusing on individual websites or flickr accounts. For the longest time I've been mostly against flickr because I considered it a 'dumping ground' for photos. I have reconciled my opinion by the following:

1) Making contacts with those who post quality work
2) Filtering contacts to those who post at most one to two images per day
2) Engaging in conversations via comments or by flickr mail
3) Cross-posting my images on flickr and on this photoblog (one of the reasons for cross-posting is that the photos on this photoblog tend to go unnoticed, while there is a significant exposure of the photos on flickr, because they can be tagged, and therefore found via search).

So the first photographer I want you to look over on flickr is Anastasia Volkova. She primarily photographs herself, her sister, and people in her life. Some of my favourites are 'Smells Like Spring,' 'Spin,' and 'Colorless.' Oh, and if you're a fan of the movie Wall-E, then you're going to love her Wall-E and Eva set.


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