Saint-Bénézet chapel, Romanesque chapel on a bridge pier in Avignon, France

Saint-Bénézet chapel stands on the third pier of the Pont Saint-Bénézet, between the second and third arches, above the Rhône and beneath the Saint-Nicolas chapel. It is a small Provençal Romanesque chapel whose floor lies 4.50 m below the bridge deck, reached by a stair partly corbelled and partly cut into the bridge's thickness. From the deck, an arcade opens onto its interior, and a lower arcade faces downstream onto the pier spur.

The bridge was begun in 1177 and finished in 1185, spanning the Rhône with twenty-two arches; the chapel on the third pier was dedicated to Saint Nicholas and held the relics of Saint Bénézet. According to legend, the shepherd Bénézet, born in 1165 in Burzet, received at age twelve the divine order to build the bridge. Four arches remain today, including the one carrying the chapel.

The chapel is dedicated to Saint Nicholas and held the relics of Saint Bénézet, the shepherd born in Burzet in 1165 who, at twelve, was told in a vision to build a bridge at Avignon. The bridge and its two chapels are classed as Provençal Romanesque. From the bridge deck an arcade let travellers see inside the chapel.

The chapel stands on the third pier of the surviving arches, above the Rhône and beneath the Saint-Nicolas chapel. Its floor lies 4.50 m below the bridge deck, reached by a stair partly built out on corbels and partly cut into the bridge's thickness. Only 2 m of deck width, bahut included, was left for passing in front of it; an arcade let people see inside from the deck.

The chapel sits on one of the surviving sections of a bridge that originally had 22 arches spanning the Rhône. Of that structure, only 4 arches remain today, making this standing chapel a rare window into how medieval bridges were actually built and used.