Scripta Mediaevalia 7
Château et divertissement : Actes des rencontres d'archéologie et d'histoire en Périgord les 27, 28 et 29 septembre 2002
Publication date :01/01/2003
Scripta Mediaevalia 1
For millenniums, traffic and transportation in Aquitaine were carried out on roads that were natural and undeveloped (except for the Lot under Colbert), or simply traced through the countryside. The building of a road in the Eastern Landes under Napoléon I to dispatch troops in Spain marked a turning point. In a couple of decades, waterways developed, and projects to link multiple river basins blossomed – projects that would seem impossible nowadays. Never Aquitaine’s waterways were as frequented as in the second half of the 19th century. But soon a railway network was built and its meshes were progressively denser – the last construction was the Somport line in 1929, a network that ruins internal navigation.
A century and a half after the opening of the first railway line, only a few of the oldest roads were used by convoys, and most waterways were abandoned despite a certain renewal through tourism. The railway foundation and the abandoned locks are the archaeological testimonies of this equipment fever because cars have dealt them a definitive blow.
On the same subject
Scripta Mediaevalia 7
Publication date :01/01/2003
Scripta Mediaevalia 19
Actes des Rencontres d'archéologie et d'histoire en Périgord, les 24, 25 et 26 septembre 2010
French and Spanish contributions
Publication date :01/01/2011
Scripta Mediaevalia 4
Publication date :01/01/2001