Tour Jeanne-d'Arc, le donjon de Rouen

Rouen

The castle of Rouen, built by Philip Augustus from 1204 to hold the conquered town, now exists only through this keep: a round tower thirty metres high and fourteen in diameter, with walls four metres thick, set on the hill of Bouvreuil. In 1431 the castle was the English headquarters and the place of the trial: the public interrogations were held in the chapel and the presence chamber, the sessions in closed committee in the prison. The tower's name misleads, and the error is an old one: Joan was held in another tower, known as the tower of the Maid, today destroyed. The keep has its page in the case all the same. It was there that, on 9 May 1431, she was brought before the executioner and the instruments, to wring confessions from her. The record has kept her answer: that if her limbs were pulled apart and her soul driven from her body, she would say nothing else, and that if she did say anything, she would afterwards declare that it had been forced from her. She was not tortured. The pepper-pot roof and the hoardings date from the restoration carried out from 1866 to 1874.

Wikipédia — Tour Jeanne-d'Arc ↗

Getting there : Rue du Donjon, in Rouen, ten minutes' walk from the station and a quarter of an hour from the cathedral. The tower is fitted out as a museum and can be visited according to the times posted, with an admission charge. The footings of the tower of the Maid, where Joan was really shut up, are visible in the courtyard of a building at 102, rue Jeanne-d'Arc.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound