According to legend, the bridge was founded by the shepherd boy Benese. He had a divine revelation that a bridge was to be built across the river Rhone. The inhabitants of Avignon reacted to his words with skepticism, but the boy picked up a piece of rock, which 30 strong men could not budge, and moved it to the place where the construction of the Saint-Benezet bridge began. And in 1185, nineteen arches of the bridge spanned almost 900 meters across two branches of the Rhone and became the gates of Avignon for those who arrived from the sea along the river.→