construct a new port just to the north of the Square Tower but the build-up of silt limited the depth of water. Flooding of the town Roquemaure was vulnerable to flooding by the Rhône and on the southern wall of the church there are marks recording the height of the water in the major floods of 1755 and 1840 when most of the town would have been under more than one meter of water. There was another very destructive flood in May–June 1856. In 1860 the French state agreed to pay two thirds of the cost of the construction of a dyke to protect the town. The dyke began at the Colline Saint-Jean and followed the river south to the village of Sauveterre. It protected the town during the severe flooding of 1935. After World War II the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône began canalizing the river. The section near Roquemaure was completed in the early 1970s. Bridge across the Rhône In 1835 work began on the construction of a suspension bridge over the Rhône at Roquemaure. At the time there was no bridge across the river between Avignon and Pont-Saint-Esprit. The bridge was destroyed by American aircraft in August 1944 during World War II. A chain ferry was then operated across the river until 1959 when the current bridge was opened. Railway station The railway station in Roquemaure was opened in August 1880 on the line running between Le Teil and Grézan-Nîmes on the right bank of the Rhône. The station closed in August 1973 when passenger transport on the line ceased. The line has since been electrified and is now used for freight. Church The Catholic collegiate church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste and Saint-Jean-l'Evangéliste dates from the first half of the 14th century. It was built in the southern gothic style (gothique méridional) and replaced an earlier church dedicated to Sainte-Marie. The construction of the present church was initiated by Bertrand du Pouget, a powerful figure in the church hierarchy in the early period of the Avignon Papacy. He was appointed as the cardinal priest of San Marcello by Pope Jean XXII in 1316 and the cardinal bishop of Ostia e Velletri in 1327. In 1345 Pope Clement VI authorised the transfer of the parish services from Sainte-Marie to the new church and the establishment of a collegiate chapter consisting of ten priests and two canons. One of the canons was