Donjon de Bours, Fortified house in Bours, France.

The Donjon de Bours is a square tower of Artois sandstone built against an old feudal motte in the centre of the village. Its square base is flanked by six cylindrical corbelled turrets — four at the corners and two mid-way along the north and south faces — capped with conical roofs and of decreasing diameter. The walls are sober and barely 30 cm thick at the turrets, and traces of the old moat remain visible.

The first lords of Bours appear in charters of the counts of Saint-Pol at the end of the 12th century with Adam de Bours. The tower itself was built in the 14th century in Artois sandstone; on the death of Jehan de Bours without heirs in 1389 the seigneury passed to the Mailly family. In 1537 and 1543 French troops burned the castle, destroying the interior of the tower but not its sandstone walls.

The tower shows how nobles lived in northern France and built with regional sandstone techniques that remain visible today. The construction style continues to shape how people understand medieval residential architecture in this region.

The tower stands in the middle of Bours, in a hollow at the heart of the village, between Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise and Bruay-la-Buissière. Guided tours are run by the CRAH, the local archaeological and historical research circle. The building housed the town hall from 1982 to 2014, and its management is now with the communauté de communes du Pernois.

The turrets' diameters grow larger the farther they sit from the entrance, which gives the modest building its massive look. Their walls are barely 30 cm thick, evidence that the tower was a residence rather than a fortress. Arrow slits in the cellar and a murder hole at the entrance are the few defensive features left.