Remparts, tours et portes de la ville
FortressHidden Treasure
Remparts, tours et portes de la ville, located in Dinan (Département 22), is a Renaissance château built in the 16th century. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- Fort
- Period
- Renaissance (16th century)
- Location
- Dinan, Département 22, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.4562, -2.0476
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00089139
Joyau médiéval de Bretagne, les remparts de Dinan forment l'un des ensembles fortifiés les mieux conservés de France, avec leurs tours rondes, leurs portes monumentales et leurs 2,5 km de courtines dominant la vallée de la Rance.
History
Dinan is one of the few towns in Brittany to have preserved its medieval fortifications virtually intact, and its ramparts are among the most striking examples of late medieval military art in France. Surrounded by a continuous wall almost 2.5 kilometres long, the old town stands on its rocky promontory overlooking the River Rance like a citadel out of time, capable of rivalling the great fortified towns of the Midi or Burgundy. What sets Dinan apart from other fortified towns is the exceptional coherence of its layout: the walls have not been broken up, dismantled or incorporated into a dense urban fabric. The evenly-spaced towers alternate between round and polygonal shapes, depending on the phase of construction, providing a veritable treatise on open-air medieval poliorcetics. The gates - Porte du Guichet, Porte Saint-Malo, Porte Saint-Louis - have retained their original defensive features, including traces of harrows and slides. The walk along the ramparts is one of the most romantic urban walks in Brittany. The rampart walk offers plunging views over the slate roofs of the upper town, the terraced gardens and the deep valley of the Rance, towards which the famous viaduct descends. At dawn or dusk, the low-angled light reveals the grain of the granite and the velvety texture of the mosses, transforming the walk into an almost painterly experience. The outer areas of the ramparts deserve just as much attention as the sentry walk. At the foot of the curtain walls, partially preserved dry ditches are a reminder that this defensive system was designed with depth in mind. The Jardin Anglais, laid out on the site of the cemetery of the former collegiate church of Saint-Sauveur, offers a privileged view of the sentry walk and the ducal castle, which closes off the enclosure to the south-east. Families, photographers and medieval history enthusiasts will find this an inexhaustible field of exploration.
Architecture
Dinan's fortifications extend for around 2.5 kilometres, encircling the old town on its rocky spur. The layout follows the topographical contours of the land with rigorous military logic: the curtain walls made of local granite, 1.5 to 2 metres thick, are punctuated by around fifteen towers whose shapes vary according to the period of construction - cylindrical for the oldest (13th-14th centuries), polygonal or horseshoe-shaped for the 15th-century additions, bearing witness to the evolution of Breton defensive doctrines. The gates deserve particular attention. The Porte du Guichet, the best preserved, features a sliding gate with traces of a portcullis, flanked by two round towers and topped by a crenellated sentry walk. The later Porte Saint-Malo adopts a more massive architecture that already incorporates the constraints of artillery. The machicolations, found on several towers and curtain walls, are carved in Breton granite with a sobriety characteristic of Breton military art, devoid of the ornamentation sometimes found on fortifications in the Loire Valley. The materials used are almost exclusively granite extracted from local quarries, giving the ensemble a remarkable chromatic homogeneity - a bluish grey that takes on golden hues in the setting sun. The roofs of the towers, made of Anjou slate, cover the parapets with conical or pavilion-shaped roofs. The whole complex has been carefully restored using medieval techniques, and is in an exceptional state of preservation for an urban fortification of this scale.
Related Figures
Bertrand Du Guesclin — chevalier breton né près de Dinan vers 1320, futur connétable de France, dont le combat légendaire de 1359 se déroula sous les murs de la villeJean IV de Bretagne — duc de Bretagne (1364-1399) ayant contribué au renforcement des défenses de Dinan et à la construction du château ducal attenantJeanne de Penthièvre — duchesse de Bretagne, initiatrice des travaux du château ducal à partir de 1380, complétant le dispositif défensif de l'enceinteThomas de Cantorbéry — chevalier anglais dont l'affront fait à la famille Du Guesclin déclencha le célèbre duel sous les remparts en 1359Prosper Mérimée — inspecteur général des Monuments Historiques, dont l'action nationale pour la préservation du patrimoine médiéval ouvrit la voie au classement de 1886Jean V de Bretagne — duc de Bretagne (1399-1442) sous lequel les fortifications de Dinan furent adaptées aux nouvelles contraintes de l'artillerie à poudre
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Remparts, tours et portes de la ville located?
Remparts, tours et portes de la ville is located in Dinan, Département 22 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Remparts, tours et portes de la ville built?
Remparts, tours et portes de la ville dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Remparts, tours et portes de la ville open to visitors?
Remparts, tours et portes de la ville is currently closed to visitors.
