Tour de la Chaîne

The tower of the string, along with the Tour Saint-Nicolas and the Tour de la Lanterne, one of the three towers from the waterfront of La Rochelle, and one of the iconic twin towers of the Old Port, it is the majestic entrance.

Built between 1382 and 1390, several years after the Tour Saint-Nicolas, her function was to tension the chain, secured by a ring in the tower of St. Nicolas on the other side, so as to prohibit access to the port blocking the channel between the two towers.

This tower, which also acted magazine, was badly damaged in 1651 during the Fronde, which dethroned the explosion, destroying the roof, the battlements and parapet.

In 1824, when the enlargement of the harbor entrance, the small tower housing the capstan chain that was used to tension the chain is destroyed.

Historical monument in 1879, it was partially restored in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.