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Régemortes Bridge is a stone-made bridge above the Allier in Moulins in the homonymous department. It is named after its creator Louis de Règemorte (Note 1), who built the bridge in the middle of the 18th century. Seen as an innovative bridge for its time, it was the very first to resist the massive floods of the river.

The bridge has been considered to enter the « Monuments historiques » since 1946.


 * 1) Contents
 * 2) 1.     Building of the bridge
 * 3) 2.     Since its building
 * 4) 2.1.          Second World War
 * 5) 2.1.          After war
 * 6) 3.     Tourism
 * 7) 4.     Notes and references
 * 8) 4.1.          Notes
 * 9) 5.     References
 * 10) 6.     Bibliography
 * 11) 7.     Further reading
 * 12) 8.     External links

In 1750, Louis de Régemortes, an engineer of the “Turcies et Levée de la Loire” (an organization under the AncienRégime in France whose mission was to build, monitor, maintain or repair the system of dikes that border and protect the Loire river), has been charged to study a bridge project in order to replace another bridge, drawn by Mansart back in 1705, which was taken away before the end of a flood in 1710.

Bridges of the city of Moulins, just like the bridges in downstream of Vichy have throughout history, been taken away on a regular basis by the violent floods of Allier.

With his experience on the Loire and the failure of the Mansart Bridge, Louis de Régemortes found out that the collapse of the bridges was due to the power of the floods but also to the mobility and the thickness of the sands on which the bridges rest. The piles, on which the previous ones of the bridge rested, could not reach the layer of hard rock (1).

From 1750 to 1753, Louis Régemortes introduced a project, which has been approved by Moulins’ local council and later a decision from the King’s council on May 6th 1753. This project consist in 2 innovations (1):

·        A general sill plate, already used but on a smaller scale on the river Vienne, which aims to bring a proficient artificial stiffness(1)

·        A wide opening for the waters passage of 253 meters(1) (for a total length of approximately 300 meters) whereas Mansart Bridge only foresaw 113 meters) (1).

The construction will last for 10 years, from 1753 to 1763. Régemortes demolished the Madeleine’s district on the left bank (1) of the river in order to dig in the berm, the first part of the sill plate of a depth of 1,65 meters and of a width of 34 meters(1), which will be protected by the river.

A first half of the bridge is built on the left bank of the river between 1753 and 1759. Once finished, a small dyke will be built to lead the flow of the river under this new part of the bridge, allowing the construction of a sill plate on the right bank of the river followed by the bridge’s second half(1).

The final work was completed in 1763. The cuttings extracted from the river to place the raft are used for the construction of dykes on the right bank to protect the city of Moulins’ floods (1).

The bridge then measures 300 meters between bare abutments with 13 arches of 19.5 meters each (1). This is the first large bridge that was built on a main sill plate with a horizontal and straight deck.

In 1771, Régemortes published a richly illustrated volume describing the construction of the Moulins Bridge and the technics used.

Since its building

The bridge will withstand all the floods, including the two exceptional ones of 1790 and 1866, to this day. The bridge will serve as a model for the Loire Bridge (1) at Nevers and the Guétin canal Bridge (1).

Until the completion in 1859 of the railway bridge (known as the Iron Bridge or Black Bridge) located upstream, it will be the only bridge of Moulins and surroundings crossing the Allier.

World War 2

During the Second World War, Colonel Humières (Note 2) was responsible for the defence of the Moulins area (2). He decided, against the advice of the mayor, Rene Boudet (2), who wanted an "open city", to establish a line of defence on the left bank(2) of the Allier and undermine one of the arches of the bridge, the third starting from the left bank, by placing six tons of nitrite(2) on it.

When the Germans invaded the city from Nevers and the right bank, on June 18, he blew up (Note 3) the bridge arch (3) at 14:10 to prevent the crossing of the German troops (Note 4). The blast of the explosion destroyed many windows of Moulins, including those in the council hall, at that moment in the middle of an extraordinary meeting (2).

A wooden footbridge will be installed fairly quickly (2) and the arch will be rebuilt in concrete a few months later (1).

During the Occupation, this part of Allier marked the demarcation line that separated France in two, occupation zones to the north and west and the Zone libre to the south. The line also separated the Madeleine district (the only part of Moulins in the free zone) from the rest of the city. The Régemortes bridge will be one of the main points of passage, located on the road between Vichy where sat the French State and Paris.

Only people with a laissez passer will be able to cross the bridge. In addition to the controls of the army and the German customs, the French gendarmerie also controls the bridge, to fight against the black market. Individual underground crossing or with the help of smugglers (4) across the river, are the only solutions for those who do not have a free pass.

After war

The bridge is the subject of an inscription under the Monuments historiques by the decree of July 17, 1946(5).

The exploitation of gravel pits after the war, will contribute to the lowering of the bed of the Allier, weakening the raft (1). To reinforce it, a rock fill threshold will be created and concrete will be injected (1).

Tourism

The view at the entrance of the bridge arriving from the west, on the left bank, offers a particularly remarkable alignment of 4 arrows from the two main religious buildings of the city:

The symmetrical double belfry of the Moulins Cathedral,

The symmetrical double bell tower of the Sacred Heart Church.

Even if the last one is lower, the perspective effect contributes to the 4 arrows appear from this angle of view of the same height.

Notes and References

Notes

1.     Several forms of the surname are attested. The one which dominates when it comes to the bridge of Moulins is the form "Régemortes", which is adopted by Louis de Régemortes himself in his work of 1771 where he describes the construction of the bridge.

2.     Colonel Francis Humières (1878-1952), originally from the region of Aurillac, was, like his four brothers, cavalry officer. In September 1939, he was recalled from his retirement, which he had taken 3 years earlier, then he was appointed commander of the place of arms of Moulins, Villars district, and the military subdivision of the Allier. He was then under the orders of his brother, General Humières who commanded the 13th military region, based in Clermont-Ferrand.

3.     Lack of detonator cord available, the six tons of nitrites were exploded by shooting on the barrel.

4.     In June 1940, the Germans crossed the Allier Moulins by the railway bridge (the "Black Bridge") that had not been destroyed (source: Trividic, 399).

References

·        ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o et p Jean-Michel Delaveau,, Champetières, éditions de la Montmarie, 2009, 288 p. ( ISBN 9782915841381 ), p. 194 à 197

·        ↑ a b c d e et f Jean Débordes,, Clermont-Ferrand, De Borée, 2000, 503 p. ( ISBN 2-84494-020-X ), chap. 1 (« La débâcle »), p. 21 à 25.

·        ↑ Robert Trividic, «  », Bulletin de la Sociétéd'émulation du Bourbonnais, t. 78,‎ septembre 2017, p. 399.

·        ↑ "De l'entréeen guerre à l'armistice" [archive] sur le site des Archives départementales de l'Allier.

·        ↑ Notice no PA00093229 [archive], base Mérimée, ministèrefrançais de la Culture.

Bibliography

·        Louis de Régemortes, Description du nouveau pont de pierreconstruit sur la rivièred'Allier à Moulins (1771).

·        Marcel Prade, Les ponts monuments historiques, Poitiers, Éd. Brissaud, 1988, p. 45-47. Jean-Michel Delaveau,, Champetières, Éditions de la Montmarie, 2009Hélène Camus, « Sous Louis XV, Monsieur de Régemortes met unterme aux tribulations séculaires du pont de Moulins », Cahiers bourbonnais, no 213, 2010, p. 49-58.

·        M. T. Téty, « Louis de Régemortes à Moulins :unerivière, uneville, un pontenfinil y a 250 ans », Étudesbourbonnaises, n° 331, septembre 2012.

Further readings

Louis de Règemorte

Moulins (Allier)

List of bridges of Allier

List of bridges on the Allier

External links

The RégemortesBridge [archive] onStructurae

Notice of the Régemortesbridge in the Mérimée base [archives]

Website of the building museum of Moulins