Pont du Diable, Stone bridge over Château-Renaud stream in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France.
Pont du Diable is a three-arch stone road bridge over the Château-Renaud stream, its deck about 70 metres above the water. The main arch spans 20 metres, with side arches of 10 and 5 metres on the right bank, for a total length of 61.50 metres. On the upstream face, the keystone of the main arch is carved with a grimacing devil's head.
Construction started in the late 1870s under M. Delmas from Besançon to link the previously isolated village of Sainte-Anne. This project improved access to the area and made travel between nearby communities much easier.
The legend tells that the builder, desperate after repeated collapses, sold the soul of the first person to cross the bridge to the Devil; the priest bringing last rites crossed first and drove him off with the cibary. Charles-Émilien Thuriet recorded it in 1882 from Father Borne of Crouzet. A grimacing devil's head is carved on the upstream keystone of the main arch.
The bridge carries the D229 departmental road at kilometre point 3.95, a single-lane crossing; Crouzet-Migette lies about 1.3 km east and Sainte-Anne about 1.9 km west. Signs at each end bar vehicles over 10 tonnes. Rappelling and bungee jumping are banned by prefectoral order of 11 October 1994.
The keystone of the main arch, on the upstream side, is carved with a grimacing devil's head, a nod to the pact legend. The bridge is a single-lane structure closed to goods vehicles over 10 tonnes, and since 1994 a prefectoral order has banned rappelling and bungee jumping from it.
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