"This is the longest road bridge in the Haute-Loire department.
It belongs for particularity to three municipalities: Le Puy-en-Velay, Espaly-Saint-Marcel and Aiguilhe. The road to Santiago de Compostela used this bridge, which once commanded one of the main roads leading to Puy-en-Velay.
The Pont d'Estroulhas (Estrouillas), also called the "Old Bridge", is 210 meters long and five meters wide. It crosses some distance upstream from the town of Aiguilhe the Borne river, where it forms the boundary between Aiguilhe and the town of Espaly-Saint-Marcel.
The name of the bridge, which is mentioned for the first time in 1264, could refer to a sum of three farthings that once had to be paid as a grant because, in the past, the Estroulhas bridge defended the passage for those who, coming from the Auvergne road, headed towards Anis.
This curious work bears the mark of the 12th century (for four arches) and of the 15th and 18th centuries (for the rest). This original bridge was built according to the whims of the river which shifted its course over the centuries.
It originally had 17 uneven Romanesque and Gothic arches. There are 14 arches left; 7 arches are vaulted, the others are semicircular. Only two span the river proper, the other spans unfolding only above formerly cultivated land, in principle always dry, but probably once also belonging to the bed of the river; two of these arches, buried today, even function as cellars.
It includes piers with front beaks (upstream) and rear beaks (downstream) for some. Its parapet is sinuous.
The arches are irregular and low, showing a slight break with old keystones, with the exception of an arch completely redone in modern times. The most northerly spans have a very old structure, suggesting that they could date back to pre-Romanesque times.
A short story:
this current strong peaceful bridge was the theater of bloody facts during the wars of religion which affected the Vélay from 1560 to 1596. On January 25, 1591, the baron Antoine de Saint-Vidal was assassinated by Pierre de la Rodde said the cadet of Séneujols during an interview between royalist leaders and leaguers on the bridge of Estroulhas."