Tour Jean-sans-Peur, le donjon des ducs de Bourgogne à Paris

Paris (2e arrondissement)

On 23 November 1407, in the rue Vieille-du-Temple, Louis of Orléans, brother of King Charles VI, was murdered by hired men of the duke of Burgundy, John the Fearless. The duke fled, returned, had himself absolved by a theologian who pleaded before the court the right to kill a tyrant, and settled in Paris, which was favourable to him. It was then, between 1409 and 1411, that he had raised in his mansion in the rue Mauconseil, the former Hôtel d'Artois, a tower of twenty-seven metres, backing onto the old rampart of Philip Augustus: an urban keep, at once lodging, ceremonial staircase and refuge, from which one could discreetly reach the curtain wall. You climb by a great spiral staircase whose vault, at the top, is carved with a pot from which spring branches of oak, up which climbs hop, joined by hawthorn: according to the usual interpretation, the emblems of Philip the Bold, John the Fearless and Margaret of Flanders, the father, the son and the mother. Each chamber had its latrines, the oldest preserved in Paris. John the Fearless was killed in his turn on the bridge at Montereau in 1419; in the 16th century the mansion became a theatre, the famous Hôtel de Bourgogne, and then disappeared. The tower, forgotten in a courtyard, reappeared when the rue Étienne-Marcel was cut through.

Wikipédia — Tour Jean-sans-Peur ↗

Getting there : Métro Étienne-Marcel or Les Halles; the entrance is on the rue Étienne-Marcel. The tower is run by an association and open in the afternoon, from Wednesday to Sunday, with a closure in August; paid entry, no booking. You climb the great spiral staircase to the sculpted vault, visit the rooms and the reconstruction of the latrines; a temporary exhibition on life in the Middle Ages changes every year. Allow three quarters of an hour.

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

Ambient sound