After many, many years, it is now again possible to reach the upper floor of this 1630s guard tower. Restoration work continues, even across Covid-19 pandemic year 2020-21.
Although formerly being in a dilapidated condition, this building is probably the most authentic piece of seventeenth-century construction work in the entire Ville Idéale. This NW corner of the town lay at the extremity of a nunnery that, from the first, served the cardinal duc's New Town. Its ecclesiastical ownership prevented encroachments into the moat beyond by private dwellings or gardens as elsewhere on the three other sides, and allowed the structure to be uniquely preserved in its original format. It must have been part restored in the 19th or 20th century as can be seen in the existing condition of the roof and chimney.
The restoration work has recreated the simple utilitarian character of this defensive building whose real purpose was more symbolic and stylistic than military.
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