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Villages / Fribourg / Sarine district / Pont de Zaehringen et viaducs

Pont de Zaehringen et viaducs

Site Canton of Fribourg · District: Sarine · Uninhabited site (municipality of Fribourg)
Part of the municipality of Fribourg
Origin of the name Founding Historical timeline Must-see historical sites Remains Sources and references Nearby villages

Origin of the name Pont de Zaehringen et viaducs

The bridge is named after the Zähringen, the ducal family that founded Fribourg in 1157. Its predecessor was simply called the Grand Pont (Great Bridge).[1]

Founding of Pont de Zaehringen et viaducs

In the early 19th century, travellers from Bern needed about an hour to get from the Schoenberg into Fribourg: they had to cross the Sarine three times in the lower town and then climb up by the Grand-Fontaine, a route nicknamed the « tombeau des chevaux » (horses' grave). The French engineer Joseph Chaley, a former officer of Napoleon who had built suspension bridges in southern France with Marc Séguin, threw a suspension bridge with a 273 m span between the Schoenberg and the rue des Bouchers between 1832 and 1834. The road to Bern then left the Auge for the Bourg. Short of money, the town had chosen iron wire over stone. When suspension bridges came to be judged too dangerous, the Public Works Department held a competition for a concrete bridge, completed in 1924 on the same spot.[2][3][8][9][11]

History of Pont de Zaehringen et viaducs

1830. Joseph Chaley draws up the project for the Grand Pont, in competition with Guillaume-Henri Dufour.[2]

1832-1834. Chaley builds the suspension bridge. Its cables span 273 m between the two portals, with a sag of 19.28 m, and the deck runs about 50 m above the Sarine (construction is also dated 1832 to 1835).[1][2][3]

1834. Opening of the Grand Pont, which links the Schoenberg with the rue des Bouchers and shifts traffic from the Auge to the Bourg. For 15 years (or 14), no suspension bridge in the world is longer. Writers and painters depict it, and visitors come from afar to see it.[1][8][11]

1839-1840. Chaley builds a second suspension bridge, 151 m long, over the Gottéron, on the new cantonal road to Bourguillon.[2][12]

1920. After an accident at the Gottéron bridge, the Public Works Department opens a competition to replace the Grand Pont.[3]

1922-1924. The engineers Jules Jaeger and Armin Lusser, who designed the Pérolles bridge, build the concrete Zaehringen Bridge.[3][5]

1924. The new bridge opens to traffic early in the year and the Grand Pont is dismantled.[3][13]

1956-1960. The Gottéron suspension bridge is demolished in 1956 and replaced by a reinforced concrete bridge by the engineer H. Gicot.[2][12]

1959. The first studies for a new crossing of the Sarine in Fribourg begin.[6]

1989. The City of Fribourg invites five engineering groups to compete for the Poya bridge. The GVH group (P. Gorgé, A. Vaucher, B. Houriet) wins (the competition is also dated 1990).[3][6]

2006. On 24 September, 81 % of voters approve the 58 million franc credit for the Poya.[6]

2010. On 3 September, the foundation stone of the Poya bridge is laid at mast no. 6.[6]

2014. The Poya bridge is inaugurated on 10 and 11 October. On 12 October the Zaehringen Bridge is closed to private cars after 90 years of motor traffic, and the City becomes its owner.[1][4][6][7]

2018. After several suicides, temporary vertical nets are installed on the Zaehringen Bridge.[4]

2022. On 11 January, the municipal executive requests a credit of 8.7 million francs to repair the bridge and make it safe.[4]

Historic sites in Pont de Zaehringen et viaducs

Zaehringen Bridge. Reinforced concrete arch bridge of 1922 to 1924, with seven arches on six piers, one of them in the river. It is 247 m long (or 235.55 m) and its deck runs about 45 m above the Sarine (or 48 m). Reserved for buses, bicycles and pedestrians since 2014, it is listed as a category A cultural property.[1][4]

Sous-pont. A narrow road runs through the piers, a few metres above the Sarine, and serves the Auge district.[1][3]

Poya Bridge. Cable-stayed bridge inaugurated in 2014, 851.6 m long, with a 196 m main span and two 110 m masts. It was built to relieve the Bourg, which carried about 25'000 vehicles a day.[1][7]

Remains in Pont de Zaehringen et viaducs

Grand Suspension Bridge. Work of Joseph Chaley, opened in 1834 and dismantled in 1924. The bridge had no central pier. Walter Mittelholzer's aerial photographs show the change from the suspension bridge to the Zaehringen Bridge.[2][8][10][13]

Gottéron suspension bridge. Chaley's second suspension bridge in Fribourg, 151 m long, built in 1839-1840 and demolished in 1956.[2]

Sources

  1. Fribourg Région, « Pont de Zaehringen »
  2. Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Chaley, Joseph » (Hermann Schöpfer), version du 29.10.1999
  3. Office fédéral de la culture, Système Davos de qualité pour la culture du bâti, formulaire d'évaluation « Fribourg FR, Pont de Zaehringen, 1922 » (21.09.2021)
  4. Ville de Fribourg, message n° 10 du Conseil communal au Conseil général, « Remise en état du pont de Zaehringen et sa sécurisation contre les suicides » (11.01.2022)
  5. Inventaire fédéral des sites construits d'importance nationale (ISOS), « Fribourg » (ville)
  6. État de Fribourg, « Le pont de la Poya : historique »
  7. Fribourg Région, « Pont de la Poya »
  8. Timothy Montavon (RadioFr.), « Une expo sur l'ancien "plus long pont suspendu du monde" », Frapp (30.04.2024)
  9. Christophe Dutoit, « Il était un pont avant le pont », La Gruyère (2024)
  10. Ville de Fribourg, « Une exposition qui jette des ponts » (05.06.2024)
  11. Ville de Fribourg, page du quartier du Bourg
  12. Inventaire fédéral des sites construits d'importance nationale (ISOS), « Bourguillon » (2003)
  13. Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Fribourg (commune) » (François Guex, Hermann Schöpfer, Alain-Jacques Czouz-Tornare), version du 04.02.2010

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