Bénezet (Benoît), Saint
architect and engineer, "patron des ingénieurs."
According to the Chronicle of Frère Robert d'Auxerre, Benoît came to Avignon in 1177, Se disant envoyé de Dieu pour construire un pont sur le Rhône. He collected the necessary money as alms in various parts of France, and built the bridge of Avignon on the model of the Pont du Gard, built by Hadrian in the second century A.D. near Nîmes, France. Of his structure only the chapel, in which he is buried, and portions of the piers remain. The rest has been rebuilt at different periods. He founded the order of frères pontifs who built many medieval bridges in France.
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Cathedral, Soissons, Early Gothic, c.1177.
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