Fonseranes Locks (french: écluses de Fonseranes, ) are a flight of

staircase locks A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water lev ...

on the

Canal du Midi The Canal du Midi (; ) is a long canal in Southern France (french: le Midi). Originally named the ''Canal royal en Languedoc'' (Royal Canal in Languedoc) and renamed by French revolutionaries to ''Canal du Midi'' in 1789, the canal is considere ...

near

Béziers Béziers (; oc, Besièrs) is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Hérault Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Every August Béziers hos ...

. They consist of eight oval-shaped lock chambers, characteristic of the Canal du Midi, and nine gates, which allow boats to be raised a height of over a distance of . The flight was originally built as an eight-rise, which together with the ninth lock (the , to the northeast) allowed boats to cross the

Orb river Orb or Orbs may refer to: * Sphere * Globus Cruciger Ceremonial Orb Places and rivers * Orb (river), in southern France * Orb (Kinzig), a tributary of the Kinzig river in Germany * Bad Orb, a town in Hesse, Germany Literature, radio, film, ...

on a level and re-enter the canal further downstream. The "nine locks" name dates from this time. However, in 1858 an aqueduct was built to replace the crossing of the Orb. Boats now enter and leave the lower end of the flight through the side of chamber seven, which is permanently kept at its upper water level. The flight is therefore effectively made up of six locks. The lower gates of the seventh chamber are now permanently closed; the eighth chamber and the ninth lock, the pre-1858 route descending to the Orb, are disused. This side exit from chamber seven causes some confusion in describing the flight of locks. While most sources now ignore the disused eighth chamber, some still describe the flight as a seven-rise, despite chamber seven being permanently at the lower canal level. In 1983 the Fonseranes inclined plane was built adjacent to the locks, to allow commercial traffic and boats too large for the locks to bypass them. Unfortunately the project encountered technical problems, and after many years of attempting to solve them the inclined plane was abandoned in 2001. Traditional buildings such as the stables and the lock keeper's house still remain. These and the locks themselves have made the site the third most popular tourist destination in

Languedoc-Roussillon Languedoc-Roussillon (; oc, Lengadòc-Rosselhon ; ca, Llenguadoc-Rosselló) is a former administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, it joined with the region of Midi-Pyrénées to become Occitania. It comprised five departments, and ...

, after the

Pont du Gard The Pont du Gard is an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge built in the first century AD to carry water over to the Roman colony of ''Nemausus'' ( Nîmes). It crosses the river Gardon near the town of Vers-Pont-du-Gard in southern France. The Pont ...

and the town of

Carcassonne Carcassonne (, also , , ; ; la, Carcaso) is a French fortified city in the department of Aude, in the region of Occitanie. It is the prefecture of the department. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Carcassonne is located in the plain of the ...

. Though

Pierre-Paul Riquet Stele in Toulouse Cathedral Pierre-Paul Riquet, Baron de Bonrepos (29 June 1609 (some sources say 1604) – 4 October 1680) was the engineer and canal-builder responsible for the construction of the Canal du Midi. Background Paul Riquet was b ...

rightly receives much credit and acknowledgement for the creation of the

, we may forget that many individual parts of the canal were built by subcontractors other than Riquet. The subcontractors for these locks were two

illiterate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

brothers, Michel and Pierre Medailhes. Many of the workers were women. Pente Eau Fonséranes Canal du Midi

References

External links

* The French article from which this article was translated
Fonserannes Locks

{{Coord, 43, 19, 50, N, 3, 11, 59, E, display=title, region:FR_type:landmark_source:dewiki Buildings and structures in Hérault Locks on the Canal du Midi Transport in Occitania (administrative region) Tourist attractions in Hérault Staircase locks

See also

References

External links