Pont Julien
by Wendy VanHatten
If you’ve never heard of Pont Julien in Provence, France…check out these great reasons to visit.
It’s a three-arched Roman stone bridge crossing the Calavon river in southeastern France, near the village of Bonnieux in the Vaucluse department. It dates to 3 BC and is built from limestone, stretching about 85 meters long.
Hard to believe, but it was used for regular car traffic all the way until 2005, when a modern replacement bridge was finally built nearby to spare it further wear. Today it’s a footpath and bike path.
The bridge’s piers include large arched openings called flood relief bays, which reduce water pressure during floods, and upstream, semicircular cutwaters protect the piers from river currents. The arches vary in size because the piers had to be positioned wherever solid bedrock could be found — so the Romans adapted the design to the terrain rather than forcing symmetry.
Despite sounding like it might be named after a person called “Julien,” it actually derives its name from the nearby Roman settlement of Colonia Apta Julia — today’s town of Apt. It’s named after the family of Julius Caesar (the Julii), not after any later emperor named Julian.
It was built to serve the Via Domitia, a Roman road linking Narbonne to Turin — the very first Roman road built in France, connecting Italy to Roman territory in Spain.
Interestingly, of the many bridges that once lined the Provençal stretch of the Via Domitia, the Pont Julien is the only one still standing.
It was designated a “Monument Historique” in 1914, protecting it as a national heritage site. It’s often compared to its more famous cousin, the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Pont du Gard, about an hour’s drive away.
Free to visit and walk across, it makes a nice stop in the Luberon region alongside towns like Bonnieux, Apt, and Roussillon.
