Built from the 12th century onwards, the Saint-Bénézet bridge of Avignon allowed controlling the significant north-south traffic on the natural river route of the Rhône. It quickly became indispensable to the papal court installed in Avignon in the 14th century to flee the city then qualified by Petrarch as the foulest and smelliest of all the cities of the earth and join the more pastoral Villeneuve on the other bank of the river. At each crossing of the bridge, the cardinals and bishops stopped in front of the Saint-Bénézet chapel to pray and leave an alms.