Tour de la Lanterne

The tower of the lantern is the largest of the three towers from the waterfront of La Rochelle. It measures 55 meters high and consists of two parts. Its base is a cylinder 25 feet high and more than 15 meters in diameter. It is topped by an octagonal spire with four of the eight sides are pierced with trefoil windows flamboyant style. Each rib is filled with hooks.

Several rooms stacked up inside the tower. There are many graffiti carved in stone by sailors English, Spanish or Dutch, imprisoned in the tower between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Work of the medieval building may be on the site of an ancient tower. Claude Masse began in 1445 as it was not completed until 23 years later (1468). Originally it formed the southwest corner of the medieval tower and lantern served as a lighthouse and bitter. It was at that time at the water's edge.

Maintained during the razing of the fortifications in 1629, he was then integrated into the new premises in 1689. From 1900 to 1914, a restoration project of Just Lisch, then under the leadership of Albert Ballu, restores its medieval appearance.

The tower was often in prison and in 1822 there locked four sergeants of the 42nd regiment of the line who had conspired against Louis XVIII. They were tried in Paris, condemned to death and guillotined in the Place de Greve (now Place de l'Hotel de Ville). They went down in history as the 'four sergeants of La Rochelle, "and the tower keeps their memory. Very often it is called "Tour of 4 Sergeants."