Tour Saint-Jacques
Tour Saint-Jacques · Paris
Por Paris je t'aime ·
The Tour Saint-Jacques stands alone in the middle of the square that bears its name, between the Centre Pompidou and Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral.
Built between 1509 and 1523 in the flamboyant Gothic style, the Tour Saint-Jacques is the only vestige of the church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, built in the 16th century and destroyed in 1797.
This sanctuary was the meeting point and departure point on the via Turonensis (or Tours route) of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. The statue of Blaise Pascal at the base of the tower reminds us that he repeated here the barometric experiments he had carried out on the Puy-de-Dôme.
In the north-west corner, a statue of Saint James the Greater crowns the platform on which a small meteorological station has been installed since 1891. It is part of the Montsouris Observatory. The sculpted symbols of the four Evangelists (the lion, the bull, the eagle and the man) appear in the corners.
These statues were restored in the last century, as were the gargoyles and eighteen statues of saints that decorate the walls of the tower. The tower is open to visitors by reservation only.
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