Tour Philippe-le-Bel

The treaty of Meaux-Paris, signed in 1229 at the end of the Albigensian Crusade, handed the French crown land on the right bank of the Rhône from Pont-Saint-Esprit to the Mediterranean and a joint interest in the city of Avignon. In 1290 the French king, Philip IV (Philip the Fair), ceded his claim to Avignon to his father's cousin, Charles II of Naples who was the Count of Provence through his marriage to Beatrice of Provence.[1][2] As a consequence Philip gave up his share of the strategic Saint-Bénézet Bridge across the Rhone which had been built between 1177 and 1185 by the city of Avignon.[3]

The Languedoc end of the bridge was within a kilometer of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-André on Mount Andaon. The abbey had been founded at the end of the 10th century and possessed extensive property with over 200 churches spread over a wide area of southern France.[4] In 1290 Philip IV instructed Adam de Montcéliard, the sénéchal of Beaucaire, to negotiate an agreement with the abbey to cooperate in the defense of the right bank of the Rhone. The paréage treaty was signed in 1292.[1][5] It meant that the abbey surrendered temporal power but obtained protection from the unwanted pressure from the city of Avignon which wished to control both banks of the Rhône.[6]

Plan of the tower and surrounding buildings by Quintin de Beuverd, 1787

The 1292 treaty specified that the king could construct a fortress at the western end of the bridge.[7][8] By 1302, a two-storey fortified tower had been completed. This initial construction work almost certainly included the building of a curtain-wall, a well, a bread oven, a kitchen and some form of lodging for the châtelain and the guards.[9]

Charles II, Count of Provence objected to the position of the new fortress and wrote letters protesting that the foundations of the tower were right next to the bridge which was built on his property.[9][10] In spite of his objections, in 1307 work began on the construction of a gatehouse over the roadway at the end of the bridge. This provoked strong opposition by the inhabitants of Avignon who occupied the tower. Eventually, 9 months later in August 1308 a peaceful settlement was reached allowing the gatehouse to be completed.[11] In March of the following year (1309), Pope Clement V moved from Rome to Avignon.

The fortress was overlooked by the nearby Massif des Anges and the Colline des Mourgues making it difficult to defend. Around 1350, during the reign of either Philip VI or his successor John II, an additional storey was added to the tower with a rectangular turret on the top. The tower was crowned with machicolations.[12] A narrow cylindrical watchtower was added at a later date, perhaps in the 16th century.[13][14]

During the period of the Avignon Papacy the fortress saw much activity with high ranking church officials, princes and notables crossing the bridge. Between 1320 and 1350 several cardinals built palaces in Villeneuve, across the bridge from the papal palace in Avignon.[15][lower-alpha 1] On a number of occasions sections of the bridge were destroyed when the Rhône flooded.[17] The bridge then became impassable and the river had to be crossed by ferry. The harbour on the right bank was at the base of the tower. Eighteenth century drawings show that access to both the fortress and the harbour was controlled by gates on the path leading up from the river bank along what is now the Montée de la Tour.[12]

When the Avignon bridge was finally abandoned in 1669, the fortress no longer served any useful function. It was nevertheless still maintained but in 1777 a government engineer wrote a short report proposing that the fortress be abandoned. Probably, as a result, in 1787, Quintin de Beuverd, captain of the Corps Royal du Génie, produced a detailed report on the state of the buildings. It included a plan and concluded that the buildings were not required by the king. These events were overtaken by the French Revolution in 1789 but the surviving documents allow historians to study the layout of the fortress.[18]

With the Revolution the fortress became national property and was no longer maintained. In 1804 the fortress was ceded to the hospice d'Uzès as compensation for other property that had been confiscated and sold. Although the hospice had no interest in the monument, in 1808 the Gard préfecture refused to allow it to be put up for sale and as a result the monument became a ruin and was vandalised. A hole in the wall of the tower was used to anchor the chain ferry that carried passengers across the Rhone.[19] From 1821 the commune of Villeneuve rented the monument from the hospice until finally in 1842 the French king, Louis Philippe I, signed a bill authorising the commune to acquire the tower and its dependencies.[20]

From 1821 the town of Villeneuve had effective control of the monument without actually owning it, but instead of repairing the buildings, the town claimed that the ruined structures around the tower posed a hazard and in 1822 ordered them to be demolished and the material sold to cover the costs.[20] In 1834 part of the limestone rock around tower was cut away to create a new access route to the port on the Rhône. Some of the stone was used to construct the quay, the rest was supplied to lime kilns.[21] The tower is now the only part of the medieval fortress that survives. The construction of roads and a car-park have obliterated almost all traces of the surrounding buildings, but fortunately, the many documents and pictures that survive in the archives can be used to study the details of the original structure.[22]

The tower was listed as a Monument historique in 1862.[1][23]

The ground floor of the tower was probably occupied by the guards.[24] There is a small entrance on the north side which is protected by the bretèche on the exterior and a murder-hole above the entrance passage.[24][lower-alpha 3] The room has a ribbed quadripartite vault in two bays springing from corbels. The corbels are undecorated but the two ceiling bosses are carved with rosettes of acanthus leaves. The room is lit by six openings, four of which are placed in niches provided with stone benches.[lower-alpha 4] The only window is in a niche in the east wall and would have provided a view towards the bridge.[lower-alpha 5] The five other openings are arrowslits.[33] A large recessed fireplace has a chimney which is completely contained within the thickness of the north wall. In the summer it would have been closed off by thick wooden shutters.[34]

Some of the walls have traces of wall paintings. Above the fireplace there is the outline of a man's head in bright colours that must have once formed part of a larger design. In two of the arched niches, and also barely visible on the west wall, there is an interlocking hexagonal pattern in red ochre lines that is decorated with foliage curling around a large rose with five petals. The design is similar to that used to decorate the interior of several other building in the area that date from the same period.[35]

The high quality of the carving in the first floor room indicates that it was designed to serve as the main reception area. The rib vaulting is divided into two bays as on the ground floor but the six corbels and the ceiling bosses are decorated with finely carved busts or foliage.[35] The room is lit by six openings set in niches. Of these four are windows and only two are arrowslits. The fireplace is set into the west wall.[33]

There is a second entrance with modest dimensions in the east wall.[lower-alpha 6] On the outside of the building the doorway is positioned above some projecting stonework that may have been intended as the bonding to a curtain wall that was never built. The entrance was perhaps originally served by a wooden staircase but when the gatehouse was constructed it gave direct access to the châtelain's residence. The doorway and four of the niches were blocked at the beginning of the 18th century when the two upper floors of the tower was used as a prison. They were unblocked as part of the restoration work carried out in the 1970s.[36][lower-alpha 7]

When the second floor was added to the tower in the middle of the 14th century, the sloping ridged roof of the earlier terrace was retained and became the floor of the new room.[24] The rib vaulting is divided into three bays instead of two as on the lower two floors. The carved corbels and ceiling bosses are less skilful executed that those on the first floor.[35] The room was originally lit by openings in six niches of which two were windows and four were arrowslits. Those with arrowslits were blocked when the tower was used as a prison and have not been reopened.[38] The arches of the niches differ from those on the lower floors; they have an ogive shape rather than a semi-circular form.[34] The fireplace is set into the north wall.[34] There is an entrance to a garderobe in the southwest corner of the room. The position is surprising as it would have been almost above the quarters of the châtelain and it is possible that the structure was originally a bartizan which was converted into a garderobe when the upper floors were used as a prison.[34]

Three sides of the terrace have machicolations with a parapet supported on large corbels. At the corners there are semi-cylindrical corbelled turrets (bartizans) to allow the defenders to observe the sides of the tower. The crenellation of the parapet dates from the restoration work carried out in the 1980s.[34]

The tower is owned by the commune of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon and is open to the public. The room on the ground floor is used to hold art exhibitions. The first floor room houses an exhibition on the history of the Tour Philippe-le-Bel and the Pont Saint-Bénézet.[39]