- 170-ft high Gothic Tour Saint Jacques is one of the best kept secrets in Paris
- It has remained closed to the public for much of its 500 year history
- But the tower has now been opened to the public for the entire summer
|
It has stood in the heart of Paris
for more than 500 years - yet very few people will have heard of the
Gothic Tour Saint Jacques.
Tour Saint Jacques, historically a stop
on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, is one of
the best-kept secrets of the French capital.
But
that is all about to change after the 170-ft high structure built in
the 1500s has been opened to the public for the entire summer for the
first time.
New attraction: Tour Saint Jacques in Paris has been opened to the public for the entire summer for the first time
In the heart of the city: Tour Saint Jacques,
which is pictured dominating the skyline of Paris, offers stunning views
of the French capital
The 62-metre (203-foot) stone
tower offers visitors stunning bird's eye views from the heart of Paris -
provided they have the energy to walk up its 300-step spiral staircase
and pay the €6 euro entrance fee.
From the zinc-topped terrace,
the capital's most iconic landmarks compete for attention, from the
neighboring Conciergerie, Ile-Saint-Louis and Notre-Dame to the Pompidou
Centre, the Eiffel Tower, Montmartre and La Defense.
Adorned
with gargoyles and topped by a 3.5-metre statue of St James the
Apostle, the tower is all that remains of the medieval church of
Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, pillaged and destroyed by French
revolutionaries in the late 18th century.
The
bell tower - which will be open until September 15 - was spared for its
beauty and possibly to be used as a watchtower to spot the capital's
frequent and deadly fires, curators say.
Make the most of it: Visitors stand and take
pictures on top of the Saint Jacques Tower which is open to the public
for the summer
Challenging: The view from inside of the Saint Jacques Tower which has 300-steep steps to the very top
Room with a view: Visitors look inside the Tour
Saint Jacques which has undergone a ¿8.3-million restoration between
2000 to 2009
Steep descent: A visitor walks down the spiral staircase of the Tour Saint Jacques in Paris
In the early 19th century, the
bells were removed and Tour Saint Jacques became a smoke-spewing 'shot
tower', or ammunition plant.
Molten
lead passed through a sieve and dropped from the top of the tower to
land in a tub of water in the shape of a bullet. Later, it hosted a
meteorological station until the 1990s.
The
Tour Saint Jacques underwent a meticulous €8.3-million restoration
between 2000 to 2009, during which time it was shrouded by scaffolding
and decades of pollution were scrubbed from each of its stones.
The city of Paris granted a local association an exceptional permit to organize summertime visits until September 15.
'We
would like it to be open for a longer period each year,' said Remi
Riviere, head of the association. 'If we get a lot of visitors this
summer and nobody jumps from the terrace then hopefully the city will
give us the green light.'
The city of Paris granted a rare permit for the Tour Saint Jacques to open its doors to the public until September 15
Panoramic views: Tour guide David gives
explanations to visitors as they look at the Paris skyline from the
zinc-topped terrace of the Tour Saint Jacques
Facade: A partial view of the outside of the Gothic Saint Jacques Tower which is adorned with gargoyles
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2384951/The-Eiffel-Towers-new-rival-Gothic-tower-heart-Paris-opens-public-time-500-years.html#ixzz2b9N5Uovl
No comments:
Post a Comment