Tour de la Lanterne, Medieval lighthouse tower in La Rochelle, France
The Tour de la Lanterne is a 55-metre tower of pale beige stone on La Rochelle's shore. Its round shaft, over 15 metres in diameter, rises 25 metres to a band of corbels that supports a steep octagonal spire with a slender point; a smaller secondary spire stands to its right. Four of the spire's eight faces have flamboyant Gothic trilobed windows, and carved figures and a pointed window sit on its lower face.
Begun in 1445 and finished in 1468, the tower was paid for by Mayor Jehan Mérichon and built around an older tower that had controlled entry to the port. It formed the south-west corner of the medieval walls and its lantern turret served as a lighthouse. Spared when the fortifications were razed in 1629, it was later used as a prison.
The walls display over 600 engravings left by prisoners from the 17th century onward. These scratches and inscriptions tell personal stories of people who were held in confinement here.
The tower is open to visitors with multiple levels to explore, including an observation area overlooking the harbor. The internal staircase is narrow and steep, so comfortable shoes and a reasonable level of fitness are helpful for the climb.
The floor of the Jehan Mérichon room is a 1985 work by Jean-Pierre Pincemin: a 76.5 m² surface of black and white concrete whose repeated arc-shaped modules can suggest the links of a broken chain, read as an allusion to the tower's long use as a prison. The room itself does not appear in Claude Masse's surveys.
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