The patron of Pont-Saint-Martin is Saint Lawrence, celebrated on 10 August in the church that bears his name.
The town, though, owes its name to a different legend, that of Saint Martin of Tours. It tells that the saint, passing on the Via Francigena, made a pact with the devil: he would build a bridge in a single night, in exchange for the soul of the first living creature to cross it. The next day Martin released a little dog onto it, which the devil brutally killed but without obtaining the promised soul; in return, he left the inhabitants in peace. The legend comes back to life every year in the historic carnival of the Lys valley, with the devil, Saint Martin, the nymph of the Lys and her two handmaids, the Romans and the Salassi as its main characters: it closes on Mardi Gras, when an effigy of the devil is burned right on the Roman bridge over the Lys.
