SAN MARTIN TOWER
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A three-storey, rib-vaulted tower below its upper platform, with firing embrasures, crossbars and gunports.
Although Mantes is known to have been fortified as early as the 10th century, the original city walls were rebuilt around 1107, under the authority of King Louis VI le Gros, then reinforced several times and extended to cover a larger area. One of the most important of these projects was the one carried out by Charles V between 1365 and 1378. The sovereign brought to Mantes his architects, who had also worked on the Paris Bastille, such as Raymond de Temple. During the English occupation, between 1419 and 1449, the enclosure was reworked to improve its defense. In 1739, having lost its role as a stronghold, most of the rampart was demolished on the orders of Louis XV. Today, one of the last vestiges of this fortified enclosure is the Tour Saint-Martin. This ancient horseshoe-shaped artillery and defense tower was remodeled in 1419 during the English occupation, and once guarded the Porte aux Saints and the Saint-Martin priory. It has three rib-vaulted storeys beneath its upper platform, with firing embrasures, also known as "arbalétrières canonnières", all shaped to become windows when the monument was converted into a workshop in the 19th century. Listed as a Monument Historique since October 1965, the Saint-Martin Tower has been owned by the town since its purchase in 2018. The municipality has launched a complete renovation campaign for the building, scheduled to take a decade to complete.
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