Aigues Mortes - Tour de Constance

The mightiest tower in Aigues Mortes town walls is known as the "Tour de Constance"; its name is said to come from that of a daughter of King Louis VI. It is also sometimes called the "Tower of Steadfastness". Forming the northern corner of the ring of walls, it is separated from them by a moat filled with water and spanned by a bridge. 54m/177ft in height and with walls 6m/20ft thick and measuring 22m/72ft in diameter, it is the epitome of a medieval defensive construction. From the earliest times it served as a State prison, for it was considered impregnable. Among those imprisoned here were, at the beginning of the 14th C., members of the Order of Templars, who had been taken prisoner by Philip IV on the pretext of heresy and immorality, from the 17th C. many Huguenots, and finally a group of Protestant women who were released in 1768 by clemency of the Governor; among these prisoners was the well-known Marie Durand, who spent 38 years in this dungeon and was renowned in France for her steadfastness. It was last used to imprison Napoleon's officers when the Royalists took Aigues-Mortes.

It is interesting to climb up to the little turret which is crowned by an iron cage and served as a lighthouse for centuries when the town was still a port. From here there is a charming panoramic view of the town and the surrounding countryside, as far as the Cevennes in the north and the concrete pyramids of La Grand-Motte in the west, salt- mines and the Camargue in the east.