Pont de Comencau
Built in the 15th century, it spans the Aveyron river at the foot of the Château du Cayla, which overlooks the valley. Straddling the communes of Moyrazès and Druelle, it is part of the GR62B. What makes it special? One bank is higher than the other!
The bridge's name derives from "Combacaud", meaning "combe-chaude", a name given to well-exposed land in the hollow of the valley.
A solid architectural structure that has withstood the onslaught of the Aveyron River!
The forty-meter bridge is built of schist and rests on 4 semicircular arches. A separate arch on the left bank once spanned the old mill canal. Built in an unspoilt landscape, it displays a number of old-fashioned features: piers with triangular forebays and rectangular hindbays, the latter barely marked.
The piers appear to have been built in two phases. The first part, rising 1.50 m above the water, is made entirely of large local stones (schist), most of them rudimentarily masoned. The second section, above, begins at the start of the arch of the vault, with slightly rounded sandstone forebays and finer, more meticulous masonry. This observation may support the hypothesis that the piers could have carried a wooden deck, which would have been replaced by arches. The sloping construction is not original, but dates back to restoration work.
An uncertain origin...
Accessible today only by dirt track, it dates back to 1458 (according to historian Hypolyte de Barrau, 1794-1863).
Current research does not allow us to determine who was responsible for its construction. Several hypotheses have been put forward:
- the owner of the Comencau mill, in order to communicate with the other, more inhabited and more accessible bank ;
- the owner of the Ayrolles estate on the right bank (commune of Druelle);
- the lords of Château du Cayla, overlooking the bridge on the left bank.
Work and documents recovered by the association Les amis de Comencau support the hypothesis that it dates from before the French Revolution. The railings were built by local residents in the early 20th century for safety reasons.
Comencau was also a village and a mill!
This was a cattle-raising valley, where cereal crops and chestnuts were a major source of income for the people who lived there. The ruins of the mill, with its millstream ("besal" in Occitan) and causeway, are a vestige of this human occupation. Older people remember seeing it inhabited. It was a "moulin de droit banal", i.e. a mill under the feudal rule of the lord of Cayla. In 1868, the village still had 7 inhabitants.
Access: Roadside parking at Caufour. The bridge can only be reached on foot (or by mountain bike) via a dirt track.
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For people with reduced mobility:
To reach the bridge, the descent is quite steep: it's only practicable with a joëlette and a crew fit enough to climb back up!
