Clocher Saint-Jean de Breil-sur-Roya, Romanesque bell tower in Breil-sur-Roya, France

The Clocher Saint-Jean de Breil-sur-Roya is the only remnant of a Benedictine priory founded in the early 12th century. The square tower, 3 metres on each side and just over 10 metres high, is built of small, carefully laid stone blocks. Near the top, twin round-arched openings with square colonnettes and plain capitals face each side; the roof is covered with stone slabs.

The bell tower was built in the early 12th century and is the sole surviving element of a former Benedictine priory. Imperial forces destroyed the priory in 1707, but the tower endured through the centuries.

The tower's twin round-arched openings are divided by square colonnettes topped with plain, roughly carved capitals, a hallmark of the early 12th-century first Romanesque in the Maritime Alps. The church that stood beside it survived until 1664 and was destroyed by Prince Eugene's troops in 1707; only the bell tower remains.

The tower stands in Breil-sur-Roya, in the Alpes-Maritimes, and is seen only from outside; there is no interior visit. Look up at the top storey, where twin round-arched openings with square colonnettes and plain capitals face all four sides, and at the small square putlog holes in rows below them. The base is surrounded by trees and vegetation.

The tower may once have been taller: it seems to have been lowered by one storey, leaving a square section 3 m on each side and a height just over 10 m. It is the oldest bell tower in the Alpes-Maritimes, listed as a monument historique on 18 October 1935.