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IN THE COTES DU RHONE
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Saint Etienne des
Sorts |
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Click to visit town,
village or monument ::
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| Town hall :: |
04 66 79 26 06 |
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This village is situated on the banks of the Rhône, to the north of
Codolet and Chusclan, and south of Pont Saint Esprit. Its landscapes are
some of the most mountainous in the area.
The first humans who came to settle in this region must have been fascinated
by its favorable position among the hills, and in fact, several vestiges of prehistoric
settlement have been discovered. The area was still inhabited during the Romanesque
period, from which at least two religious buildings remain: the parish church
on the bank of the Rhône and the chapel of Saint Pierre on the summit of
a nearby mountain.
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| heritage |
Parish church of Saint Etienne: to our knowledge, there are
no existing ancient documents concerning this monument; all we can say is
that it was the seat of a Cluny priory under the authority of Piolenc.
Chapel of Saint Pierre: it is located some 300 meters north of the village of
Saint Etienne des Sorts, on the summit of a steep hill which towers over the
Rhône. |
| history |
The people of Saint Etienne and the Rhône :
The old town registers of Saint Etienne des Sorts mention a number of bargemen
whose work was to transport merchandise and materials over the Rhône. The
people of St. Etienne specialized in navigating relatively small boats which
were called "sapines." Three bargemen, four at most, were enough to
do the work; two horses could carry them without much trouble. They carried trunks
of poplars and other trees up to the sawmills of Avignon, as well as stones taken
from quarries, which were used to cover the river banks. This commerce reached
its apogee from 1878 to 1883.
In this period, there was a project underway to dike and canalize the Rhône.
It took five hundred workers to extract the stones, to cart them from the quarries
to the Rhône, and to transport the stones by water so that they could be
used for the construction of the dikes. Approximately twenty "sapines," each
carrying an average of 30 ml of stones and commanded by regional supervisors,
left every day from the ports of Saint-Etienne-des-Sorts and delivered their
cargo as far as Avignon.
There is not one surface, one dam, or one dike on the Rhône, from Pont
Saint Esprit to Avignon, to which the bargemen of Saint-Etienne-des-Sorts did
not contribute. The oldest "sapine" that had circulated on the Rhône
broke down in 1912. In the meantime, these boats were replaced by much larger
pontoons, towed by steam-propelled tugboats. Construction on the Rhône
has slowed considerably, and resources have suffered from this slowdown in activity.
The population, which reached 1000 in the year 1880, progressively declined to
311 in the year 1931.
From that period, the Compagnie Générale de Navigation recruits
Saint-Etienne's best bargemen, who all become the best tugboat captains.
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Between Ceze and Ardeche rivers
Cevennes foothills
Tave river valley
Around Uzes
Near the Pont du Gard
Across the bridge from Avignon