An inventory of works within the city walls - Besançon

18
18
Bregille bastioned tower
Seventeenth and nineteenth centuries
Avenue Arthur Gaulard
Built between 1687 and 1689,
it is the only bastioned tower to be
built entirely of stone and had an
annular vault on a central pillar,
containing a well. It had to provide
flanking for the Rivotte tower
and also had a defensive role for
the Saint-Paul mill. At the end of
the nineteenth century, it was converted
to a military dovecote, which would
continue to be used until 1920.
19
19
Rivotte bastioned tower
Seventeenth and nineteenth centuries
Avenue Arthur Gaulard
The Rivotte bastioned tower was built
between 1687 and 1690. Its foundations
were built on the rock, on the bank of
the river and the ditch situated in front
between the Doubs and the citadel hill,
was filled with water. The rampart was
modified when the Besançon - Le Locle
railway line was built at the end of the
nineteenth century, then again, when the
river port was modified in 1938.
Like the Bregille bastioned tower,
it has a circular vault on a central pillar
containing a well. This well formed a
link with the upper-floor platform,
for the passage of personnel and
equipment. In the nineteenth century,
when the roof was built, this well was
opened up in order to collect rainwater.
20
20
Porte Rivotte gate
Middle Ages
Rue Rivotte
Created in the Middle Ages in the
wall built along the river, the Porte
Rivotte gate guarded the passage
between the Doubs and the citadel
rock to protect the town. In the first
half of the sixteenth century, on the
initiative of Emperor Charles V,
the municipal authorities strengthened
the fortifications of the loop. The Porte
Rivotte gate was then widened and
a drawbridge installed between the
two conical-roofed towers. After
the French conquest, its central part
was reconstructed. The façade is still
decorated with the royal sun, emblem
of Louis XIV. A new modification,
in 1893, entailed removal of the
drawbridge and the portcullis, filling
in of the ditches on the town side,
destruction of the building of the
town and building of walkways
through the towers. With the porte
Taillée*, further up the route de la
Suisse, the Porte Rivotte gate is the
last of the town’s fortified entrances.
* Originally, Mont Saint-Étienne, on which the citadel
was built went straight down to the river. It was not
until the ninth and tenth centuries that an access
road was built towards the district with a fortified
gate, the porte Taillée. The latter was widened in
the tenth century to enable access of pedestrians,
cavalry and carriages then was modified several
times over the course of the centuries. It was
a first line of defence, the real gate being the
Porte Rivotte gate, an opening in the wall of the
fortifications surrounding the loop in the river Doubs.