A little history of Rohan bridge in Landerneau

The bridgeThe bridge | ©Gary Houston / CC0

A pretty rare construction! We have two of them in France, in Landerneau and Narbonne (Southern France).

Landerneau’s one dates back to 1510. Jean, viscount of Rohan, raised it to replace the old medieval bridge.

The man had just married the rich Jeanne de Léon, Hervé II and Margaret d’Avaugour’s daughter...

A pretty nice wedding, who brought prosperity to the little Breton city: they raised plenty of buildings, this bridge included!

It has 6 arches and its two façades has two different looks: on the western side, we have façade made of Logonna stone, with a sun dial and two lions.

On the Eastern side, we have two picturesque houses raised on piles.

On the bridge crossing river Elorn we used to find a windmill: vestiges were destroyed at the end of the 19th century.

But we also had a hospital top of the bridge and a defensive castle on the other side.

The hospital was raised in 1336 by Landerneau lord Hervé de Léon, dedicated to saint George and saint Julien.

The castle belonged to Hervé and then fell to Rohan family, by marriage. They destroyed it in the 17th century, in order to raise Rohan city house, also known as Castel an aot a dré, "bottom’s bank castle".