An inventory of works within the city walls - Besançon

1
Notre-Dame tower
Middle Ages, seventeenth century
Huddersfield-Kirklees roundabout
Also known as the Charles V tower
or bastion and sometimes the round
tower, it was thought to have been built
between 1546 and 1560 by Charles V
on the old medieval defences and was
entirely renovated by Vauban in the
seventeenth century. A curtain wall
linked it to the porte Notre-Dame.
The lower entrance to the tower was
walled up at the time of filling in
of the bastion courtyard adjacent to
it. The upper level is also walled.
1
2
Ramparts and site of the
old Notre-Dame gate
Seventeenth century
Tarragnoz district
In 1690, Vauban had the old porte
Notre-Dame walled up. It was one
of the entrances to Besançon.
Vauban had a new one built by the
Doubs in 1691. Demolished in 1894, it
was his first fortified work in this part
of the defences. The curtain wall which
extends up to the gare d’eau (wharf,
or literally, « water station ») was built
on one dating from the fifteenth century.
The projecting defence work, situated
at the brisure (break in direction) of the
curtain wall is known as the « double
guérite » (double lookout) 4 . It was
built on the base of an old fourteenth
century tower and gave as full a view
as possible over the surrounding area.
2
3
Porte Notre-Dame bastion
Seventeenth and nineteenth centuries
10, avenue de la Gare d’eau
3
Built between 1675 and 1693,
this bastion was adjacent to the porte
Notre-Dame. Its lower part included
a casemate, now walled in and
situated under the roadway and
its upper part has a parapet drilled with
murder holes and artillery embrasures.
The guardhouse of the old portal
is still visible from the bastion gorge.