Quai Saint-Vincent, Riverfront quay in the 1st arrondissement of Lyon, France
Quai Saint-Vincent runs along the left bank of the Saône in Lyon's 1st arrondissement, from the montée Hoche near Fort Saint-Jean downstream to the rue d'Algérie opposite the pont la Feuillée. The photograph shows a paved roadway with faded yellow markings, metal barricades and striped posts on the river side, and a raised sidewalk edged with grey bollards on the building side.
The quay is a chain of separate wharves and stepped ports built for riverside parishes. The Quai des Augustins was built in 1605, the Quai Saint-Antoine and Quai des Célestins were completed in 1624, and the Sainte-Marie-aux-chaînes section was built from 1618 to 1623. The Port of Neuville, on the Quai Saint-Benoît, was Lyon's largest port in the 18th century and was filled in after the 1856 flood.
The name Saint-Vincent comes from the old Saint-Vincent church of the Augustinian monastery on the street of the same name, dedicated to the patron saint of winemakers. A stretch downstream of Fort Saint-Jean was called Sainte-Marie-aux-Chaînes, after the chains customs officers strung across the Saône to stop smugglers; in 1418 the consulate had chains stretched across the river against a feared Burgundian attack.
The quay begins upstream at the junction with montée Hoche, 130 m upstream of pont Kœnig just after fort Saint-Jean, and ends downstream at rue d'Algérie facing pont la Feuillée, where quai de la Pêcherie continues. The roadway is separated from the lower quay by metal barricades and striped posts, with a raised sidewalk edged by grey bollards on the building side.
The quay was not built in one piece: it merges former separate quays and stepped ports. The part called Sainte-Marie-aux-Chaînes, built 1618–1623, took its name from chains stretched across the Saône on lines of boats to stop smugglers and wartime attackers, as in 1418 and 1434.
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