The Tour Jean-sans-Peur or Tour de Jean sans Peur (, Tower of John the Fearless), located in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, is the last vestige of the Hôtel de Bourgogne (), the residence first of the Counts of Artois and then the Dukes of Burgundy. The tower contained bed chambers and the grand stairway of the original residence, which stood next to it. It was completed between 1409–1411 by Jean sans Peur. The original hôtel occupied about a hectare of land, the boundaries of which are now marked by the rues Étienne Marcel, Montorgueil, Saint-Sauveur, and Saint-Denis. The tower itself is located at 20 rue Étienne Marcel, in the courtyard of an elementary school. It is one of the best surviving examples of medieval residential architecture in Paris. The tower is open to the public and presents changing expositions on life in the Middle Ages.Ayers 2004, p. 56 ("2.1 Tour Jean-sans-Peur").Some of the information in this article was translated from the equivalent article in the French Wikipedia (version 16 mars 2013 à 15:44).Official website of the Tour Jean-sans-Peur (in French).
History The Hôtel d'Artois The first hôtel particulier or manor, on the site was built by the Counts of Artois, whose domains included most of northern France and Flanders. In 1270, Robert II, Count of Artois, the nephew of king Louis IX, known as "Saint Louis", bought several houses and about a hectare of land in the northern part of the city, adjacent to the wall of Philippe Auguste, the first city wall of Paris, which had been built between 1190, and 1290. Part of the land was outside the wall, the other part within Paris. As the city grew, a new wall built by Charles V, completed in 1383, brought the entire property within the city limits. Little is known about this first hôtel, which was largely rebuilt by its later owners.
Residence of Dukes of Burgundy In 1369, the hôtel passed to Philip the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy, by his marriage to Marguerite, the Countess of Flanders and of Artois. The records of the concierge of the house show that between July 1371, and Easter 1375, he carried out important construction works, including the building of a tower.Plagnieux 1988, p. 11. After Philip's death in 1404, it became the property of Jean de Bourgogne, better known as Jean sans Peur, or John the Fearless.
The construction of the tower took place during the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), when the kings of France and England fought for supremacy in France. Paris was also a battleground of the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War (1404–1435). Beginning in 1392, king Charles VI suffered increasingly from madness, and two branches of the royal family fought over who would rule the country: the Armagnacs, supporters of the king's brother, Louis d'Orléans, and the Burgundians, led by his cousin, the new Duke of Burgundy, Jean sans Peur. On November 23, 1407, just as it appeared that the Armagnacs had triumphed, Louis d'Orléans was murdered on the street by men in the pay of Jean sans Peur. In 1408, Jean quickly regained favor by leading a successful military campaign in Flanders, and was forgiven by the king, who made him the guardian of his heir, the dauphin, Louis, Duke of Guyenne.Centre des monuments nationaux 2002, p. 299.
To celebrate his triumph and to display his wealth and power, between 1409, and 1411, Jean built a palatial new residence, attached to a tower, which contained both a grand spiral staircase which gave access to the main building, a large hall and, at the top of a separate narrow winding stairway, to private chambers. The Chronicle of Enguerrand de Monstrelet (c. 1400-1444) reported: "In this time a force of workers made for John a strong chamber of well-crafted stone, in the form of a tower, and there he slept at night. This tower had the advantage of keeping him safe.".Chronique of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, volume 1, chapter 38, cited in Rivière and Lavoye 2007, p. 7. The records of his concierge show that the additions to the hôtel, costing 10,000 livres, were made between February 1409 and May 1411, requiring the Duke to obtain several loans from wealthy Parisians. Although the base of the tower may have been built by his father, the upper part was probably built by Jean sans Peur.
From 1409 to 1413, Jean sans Peur conducted his fight against the Armagnacs from his fortified residence. He had his own unofficial militia, called the Cabochiens, made up of butchers, knackers and other workers of the powerful butcher corporation Grande Boucherie Saint-Jacques. However, the opposition to his rule grew so strong that he was forced to flee Paris in 1413. He returned in triumph in 1418, but in 1419, he was murdered by his opponents on the bridge of Montereau, under the eyes of the new Dauphin, the future Charles VII.Riviere and Lavoye 2007, p. 15.
The residence was inherited by his son, Philip the Good, but the new Duke spent very little time there, dividing his time between his palaces in Dijon, Brussels, Lille, and other cities in his duchy. During his reign, Burgundy reached to the height of its glory; he greatly expanded its territory, conquering most of the Netherlands and buying the Duchy of Luxemburg. During one campaign, his soldiers captured Joan of Arc, and handed her over to the English, who were his allies at the time. He was a famous patron of the arts, commissioning works from Jan van Eyck and other Flemish masters, and he spent a large portion of the Duchy's income on gold cloth, silk and other fabrics for his wardrobe. He only returned permanently in 1461, after an absence of twenty-six years, when king Louis XI returned to Paris. Thereafter, he entertained lavishly, holding banquets under a large tent of velours and silk erected in the garden. On these occasions, the walls of the tower were decorated from tapestries from Arras, in his province of Flanders. The old city wall of Philippe Auguste, was still in good condition and was connected to the tower by a doorway on the first floor, still visible. According to one chronicle of the time, Philippe le Bon was able to travel from the tower to the Hôtel de Soissons, near Les Halles, without setting foot on the city streets.
After his death in 1467, the duchy and house became the property of his son, Charles the Bold, though the new duke never lived in the house. He chose to live in the Tour de Nesle, a fortified residence on the left bank across the Seine from the Palais de la Cité, which had been given to him by Louis XI. The new duke allied himself first with the King of France, then conspired against him. Charles the Bold was killed in battle against the army of the Duke of Lorraine and the Swiss in January 1477. He had no sons, and the title of Duke of Burgundy died with him. Louis XI took possession of the province of Burgundy, and of the Hôtel de Bourgogne.
The Renaissance and the first Paris theater
The kings of France had no need for an additional residence in the city. In 1539, Francis I gave the hôtel to one of his allies, Diego de Mendoza, but four years later changed his mind and sold the property. It was divided into twenty lots, separated by a new street, rue Françoise (named after the King François I, now rue Française). In 1543, the tower and surrounding lots were purchased for 5200 livres tournois by a Paris merchant named Jean Rouvert, who had pioneered industry of floating lumber down the Seine to Paris.
In 1548, he sold a parcel of the land measuring 16 by 17 toises on rue Mauconseil to the first authorized theater troupe in Paris, the Confrérie de la Passion. A theater building, often simply called the Hôtel de Bourgogne, was constructed. It was the first permanent theater building in ParisRivière and Lavoye 2007, p. 19. and was used until 1783,Hartnoll 1983, pp. 97–98 ("Bourgogne, Théâtre de l'Hôtel de"). after which it was replaced by a leather market.Hervey 1847, p. 61). Only the outer walls were preserved. In 1866, the old building was torn down to make way for the construction of rue Étienne Marcel.
Ruin and restoration
The tower itself was uninhabited throughout a large part of the 17th century. Vincent de Paul opened a charitable institution there to distribute food to the needy of the quarter. In the second half of the century it was owned by Germain Courtin, the secretary of Louis XIV. He rented the lower part of the tower for a cabaret, which enjoyed considerable success. In the first part of the 18th century, a large part of the hôtel became a private house, while the tower, with the installation of stoves in the rooms, was made into a lodging house. In 1782, the tower and adjacent buildings were bought by Charles-Louis Sterlin, a wealthy hardware merchant, who installed his residence, storeroom, workshop and sales room. Some of his workers inhabited the rooms of the tower. The business was taken over in 1832 by one of his employees, Eugène Bricard, who turned it into a well-known manufactory of locks. It remained in business until 1871.Rivière and Layoye 2007, p. 25.
In the meanwhile, the grand reconstruction of the center of Paris by Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann dramatically altered the neighborhood. In 1868, the construction of rue Étienne Marcel caused the demolition of the other parts of the hôtel, leaving the tower standing alone, and removing the buildings which had blocked the view of the tower from the south. The tower soon attracted the attention of architectural historians and preservationists. The tower was purchased by the City of Paris in 1874, and was declared a historical monument in 1884. In the meanwhile, between 1875 and 1878, an elementary school was constructed just to the east of the tower, resting on the foundations of the medieval hôtel. The stone western wall of the school is all that remains of the old grand logis of the hôtel.
Major restoration projects were proposed in the succeeding years, but it was not until 1893, that work was begun under the architect Gion, aimed mainly at stabilizing and strengthening the upper structure. The medieval lucarnes, or attic windows, were removed. In 1991, and 1992, another important restoration was made by the architect P. Prunet. The tower was returned to its original medieval appearance, with the exception of the roof, which lost its medieval chimney and baccula. The tower opened to the public in 1999, thanks to the sponsorship of a private association, Les Amis de la Tour de Jean sans Peur.
Description
The tower of Jean sans Peur was never meant to stand alone; it was attached to a larger building, the grand corps of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and served as main stairway, as well as a secure residential building. In this it was similar to, though smaller than, another medieval tower of the period, the massive tower of the Château de Vincennes.
The tower of Jean sans Peur had a largely symbolic purpose; to show the power and authority of the House of Burgundy over the family of his chief rival, Louis of Orléans. Aside from church towers and the massive central tower of the Louvre palace, it was the tallest structure in the center of the city. It had some defensive features: its height, thick walls, narrow winding stairway and the machicolations high on the tower, from which objects or burning oil could be dropped on attackers; but much of this seems to have been more decorative than practical, the numerous large openings and square shape of the tower, and its location in the center of the city, would have made it difficult to defend against a military attack. Unlike a typical fortress tower, the interior was richly and lavishly decorated with carved stone, and the bed chambers in the tower were luxurious for the time, with large windows and heated latrines.Rivière and Lavoye 2007, p. 9.