Old Bridge
THE
he Pont Vieux, whose foundations were very old, was located between the Pont Neuf (Place Masséna) and Place Garibaldi. It made it possible to cross the Paillon between Old Nice and the suburb of St. Jean Baptiste also called the “Bourgada”.
It seems likely that a bridge built in the same place already existed in 1250 because in a deed of donation, passed between the Benefactor Auger BADAT and the monks of St. Francis, of the land they used to build their convent, it is said that this property was attached to the donor's mill "near the bridge".
The Old Bridge, then named Pont St. Antoine, was washed away by a sudden flood of the Paillon in October 1530, causing serious damage to many houses and gardens. It was rebuilt in 1531 and 1532 on the plans of a Piedmontese engineer, Mr. Amédée BESTEN.
It suffered various damages over the centuries, among others during the siege of NICE in 1543 by the Barbarossa fleet allied to the Duke of ENGHIEN, and always repaired and improved. He disappeared definitively in 1921 during the cover of Le Paillon.
Pope PIE VII, when he came to NICE, crossed the Old Bridge, on February 9, 1814, accompanied by the people of Nice of the faithful, going, by the rue du Vieux Pont, to the Cathedral.