Fountain 40 Fountain on the Old Toll Bridge, Sospel 14 August

 

In the 5th Century, Sospel was an important stop on the Route de Sel 

on the Royal Road from Nice to Turin. It provided water and shelter

for traders and their animals as they delivered salt to preserve fish and tan hides, etc.

The old toll bridge, a fortified bridge with a guard tower in the centre, was built sometime in the 11-13th centuries to cross the river Brevera and join the two sides of the town.

During the war it was bombed by the Germans to prevent contact between
the French Resistance ("The Maquis") and the Italians.
After the war was over, the bridge was rebuilt using the original stone.



Interesting information lifted directly from Wikipedia:

The Maquis were rural guerrilla bands of French Resistance fighters, called maquisards, during the Occupation of France . Initially, they were composed of men who had escaped into the mountains to avoid conscription into Vichy France's Service du travail obligatoire (STO) to provide forced labour for Germany.

To avert capture and deportation to Germany, they became increasingly organized into active resistance groups. Most of the Maquis cells took names after the area they were operating in. The size of these cells varied from tens to thousands of men and women.

It was standard practice among the Maquis to identify members by wearing a Basque beret because it was common enough not to arouse suspicion but distinctive enough to be effective.

Most maquisards operated in the remote or mountainous areas of Brittany and southern France. They relied on guerrilla tactics to harass the Milice and German occupation troops. The Maquis also aided the escape of downed Allied airmen, Jews and others pursued by the Vichy and German authorities. Maquisards usually relied on some degree of sympathy or cooperation from the local populace. In March 1944, the German Army began a terror campaign throughout France. This included reprisals against civilians living in areas where the French Resistance was active Oradour massacre, Tulle murders). *** The Maquisards were later to take their revenge in the épuration sauvage that took place after the war's end.

Although the Maquis used whatever arms they could get obtain, they heavily relied on airdrops of weapons and explosives from the British SOE. SOE parachuted agents in with wireless sets (for radio communication) and dropped containers with various munitions. The Maquis also used German weapons captured throughout the occupation, the Mauser 98k rifle and MP 40 submachine gun being very common. 

A French Resistance Fighter is quoted saying, "They are as common as hookers on the streets of Paris, and they get about as much action."

*** see my posts Martrys of Gabaudet  24th July and Ordour-sur-Glane 4th September

   The fountain on the toll bridge looks down the valley and across towards

 brightly painted houses and pots of red and pink geraniums.

I watched a father help his young son to turn his head to drink from the stream of water
then wiped his face with a white, well ironed handkerchief.

In 1370, Sospel  sided with the Pope of Avignon against the Anti-Pope in Rome. This raised the status of the town's church into the Cathedral of Sainte Michel. Placed on the existing Route de Sel enabled pilgrims to visit, support their political/religious stance and help fund the impressive collection of relics.

 During my visit a sound engineer was tapping microphones and heavily breathing the ubiquitous "testing testing" which echoed over the heads of the saints and the other three visitors. His control desk was tucked into the corner by a side chapel and the barrier preventing relicophiles, such as myself, from entering the chapel was down. As I craned into the darkness the electronic sensor detected me and clicked on the spotlights and illuminated display cases.
I was in ossuary heaven. The three walls of the chapel were plastered in relics, including a small piece of St. Boniface, who was born in 672 in Crediton, Devon, a little town near to where I live.
 Alas I had only a minute in paradise before a rotund and irritably officious man chased me out.

The dulcet tones of Bjork rose up into the nave, washed across the ceiling and down the pews.
 The engineer smiled and turned up the volume.

A moment of reflection on my place in the world