Chapel of Notre Dame de la Sainte in Carcassonne

As I was making my way to go to the citadel of Carcassonne, I came across the bridge which one needs to cross to get there. This was the Pont Vieux which crosses the River Aude. After admiring the beautiful bridge, I unexpectedly found this structure which stood at one end of the bridge. It seems that there is a chapel here named the Chapel of Notre Dame de la Sainte. I thought it was a strange place to set up a chapel, but I remembered that this was not the first time that I saw a chapel built near a bridge. The chapel of Saint Nicholas was built on top of the Pont d’Avignon and it arguably has an even more outrageous location compared to this one.

The Chapel of Notre Dame de la Sainte was built in 1527 to serve a nearby hospital. Knowing this, I thought that the chapel was now way too small to support such a population. The chapel was already expanded but it still was small, at least for my standards. However, it occupies a very interesting location at the foot of the Pont Vieux. The design of the chapel was gothic though it would be difficult to do this given the size of the chapel itself. It is only wide enough for a single column of pews. The stained glass windows let in multicolored lights which brighten up the chapel.

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