Port d'Amont

The Port d’Amont is the last port to have been built that is still visible at Pont-du-Château. It bears witness to the former importance of river trade on the Allier.
The source of the River Allier (425 km) is in Lozère, and it flows into the River Loire at the Bec d’Allier near Nevers. The River Allier provided a route to Nantes and later to Paris via the Briare Canal (1642).

From the early modern period until the 19th century, Pont-du-Château was a major river trading town on the Allier, with its sailors’ neighbourhood known as 'Little Marseille'. The town boasted five ports: la Vortille, les Palisses, des Bouères, la Borde Saint-Aventin and d’Amont. The last of these, built between 1835 and 1838, is the only one still standing. River traffic was intense, with 1,334 boats recorded in 1749 and 1,694 in 1750.

Two types of vessel were used: rafts made from 5 to 15 fir trees, and 'sapinières' — small, disposable boats measuring 17 to 23 metres in length, built from around 10 fir trees. They could carry up to 20 tonnes of goods, including coal, wine, Volvic stone, paper, wood and hemp to Paris or Nantes. Once they reached their destination, the sapinières were dismantled and sold as timber for heating or construction. The sailors would return on foot, their anchor on their shoulder, while the wealthier among them settled in Paris as 'bougnats', Auvergne specialists in 'wine, wood and coal'.

By the late 19th century, the arrival of the railway marked the end of waterborne trade. Today the river is used by leisure boats, and its banks have been redeveloped with greenways and parks. The Musée de la Batellerie, on Place de l’Aire, retraces this history.