Tour Jean-sans-Peur

The Tour Jean-sans-Peur or Tour de Jean sans Peur (French pronunciation: [tuʁ də ʒɑ̃ sɑ̃ pœʁ], Tower of John the Fearless), located in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, is the last vestige of the Hôtel de Bourgogne ([otɛl də buʁɡɔɲ]), the residence first of the Counts of Artois and then the Dukes of Burgundy.

The original hôtel occupied about a hectare of land, the boundaries of which are now marked by the rues Étienne Marcel, Montorgueil, Saint-Sauveur, and Saint-Denis.

The records of the concierge of the house show that between July 1371, and Easter 1375, he carried out important construction works, including the building of a tower.

On November 23, 1407, just as it appeared that the Armagnacs had triumphed, Louis d'Orléans was murdered on the street by men in the pay of Jean sans Peur.

In 1408, Jean quickly regained favor by leading a successful military campaign in Flanders, and was forgiven by the king, who made him the guardian of his heir, the dauphin, Louis, Duke of Guyenne.

[6] To celebrate his triumph and to display his wealth and power, between 1409, and 1411, Jean built a palatial new residence, attached to a tower, which contained both a grand spiral staircase which gave access to the main building, a large hall and, at the top of a separate narrow winding stairway, to private chambers.

The Chronicle of Enguerrand de Monstrelet (c. 1400-1444) reported: "In this time a force of workers made for John a strong chamber of well-crafted stone, in the form of a tower, and there he slept at night.

[7] The records of his concierge show that the additions to the hôtel, costing 10,000 livres, were made between February 1409 and May 1411, requiring the Duke to obtain several loans from wealthy Parisians.

During his reign, Burgundy reached to the height of its glory; he greatly expanded its territory, conquering most of the Netherlands and buying the Duchy of Luxemburg.

He was a famous patron of the arts, commissioning works from Jan van Eyck and other Flemish masters, and he spent a large portion of the Duchy's income on gold cloth, silk and other fabrics for his wardrobe.

According to one chronicle of the time, Philippe le Bon was able to travel from the tower to the Hôtel de Soissons, near Les Halles, without setting foot on the city streets.

In 1548, he sold a parcel of the land measuring 16 by 17 toises on rue Mauconseil to the first authorized theater troupe in Paris, the Confrérie de la Passion.

In 1782, the tower and adjacent buildings were bought by Charles-Louis Sterlin, a wealthy hardware merchant, who installed his residence, storeroom, workshop and sales room.

Major restoration projects were proposed in the succeeding years, but it was not until 1893, that work was begun under the architect Gion, aimed mainly at stabilizing and strengthening the upper structure.

The tower of Jean sans Peur had a largely symbolic purpose; to show the power and authority of the House of Burgundy over the family of his chief rival, Louis of Orléans.

It had some defensive features: its height, thick walls, narrow winding stairway and the machicolations high on the tower, from which objects or burning oil could be dropped on attackers; but much of this seems to have been more decorative than practical, the numerous large openings and square shape of the tower, and its location in the center of the city, would have made it difficult to defend against a military attack.

[14] The tower, twenty-seven meters high, is attached to the wall of Philippe Auguste, and originally stood on the courtyard of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and served as its entrance.

The chamber is covered with a quadripartite rib vault with springing points (on the outer walls) decorated with angels carrying Jean sans Peur's coat of arms.

Both of these rooms have sophisticated latrines, heated by the backs of chimneys, with conduits for evacuation and ventilation installed inside the south wall.

Originally painted in different colors, it is in the form of the intertwined branches of an oak tree interlaced with leaves of plants symbolic of different members of the family of Jean sans Peur: The sculpted vault at the top of spiral staircase was the work of Claus de Werve (1380-1439), the nephew and successor Claus Sluter, the court sculptor of the Dukes of Burgundy.

Werve's other notable work included the completion of the tomb of Philip the Bold at the ducal palace in Dijon, begun by Sluter, and the Virgin and the Child of Poligny, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Two small stained glass windows with the emblems of Jean sans Peur and of the Duke of Burgundy can also be found in the upper chambers, but they are not original.

The stone came from quarries near Paris; hard high-quality limestone, or liaise franc, probably from Notre-Dame-des-Champs near Val-de-Grâce, for the stairs and around the windows and doors, and the lower quality lambourdes or wall-plate, Charenton, Gentilly and Ivry.

Before the hôtel was completed, the plan underwent a third modification: the windows of the ground floor of the residence building were walled up, making it more secure, and additional levels and rooms were added.

Furthermore, the records of payments to the workers show that little work was done on the buildings during the summers of 1409, and 1410, due to the intensification of the war between the Armagnacs and Burgundians, which had spread to Paris.

The building was finally completed in 1411, but its builder, Jean sans Peur, left Paris in 1413, and only returned in 1418; he was assassinated the following year.