The Ramparts and Towers
The Ramparts and Towers features on the Gingerguide audio walk through Mont-Saint-Michel. Give it roughly ~30 min: enough to look, hear a two to three minute story on the spot, and ask the AI guide whatever the story leaves open.
- Type historic
- Suggested visit ~30 min
- Mont-Saint-Michel Mont-Saint-Michel guide
About The Ramparts and Towers
The 14th- and 15th-century curtain walls, towers and fortified gates ringing the village, raised against the English and still offering a walkable circuit above the bay.
Mont-Saint-Michel's ramparts, curtain walls and towers were built mainly in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when the Hundred Years' War made the English a constant threat. They enclose the lower village on the bay side and carry a rampart-walk that links a series of towers, among them the Tour du Roi, the Tour de la Liberté, the Tour Boucle and the thirteenth-century Tour du Nord. Three successive gates guard the way in: the Porte de l'Avancée, the Porte du Boulevard and the Porte du Roi, the last with a drawbridge and portcullis.
The largest tower, the round Tour Gabriel, was added in 1524 by the King's lieutenant Gabriel du Puy to defend the western flank against improved artillery; built on three levels for cannon, it later served as a mill. The English besieged the Mont repeatedly during the war but never captured it, a resistance that made the rock a symbol of France. The ramparts form part of the site inscribed by UNESCO in 1979.
Did you know? Through the Hundred Years' War the English besieged Mont-Saint-Michel more than once in the 1420s and 1430s but never captured it, and the unbeaten rock became a lasting symbol of French resistance.
How long is a visit to The Ramparts and Towers?
Set aside roughly ~30 min for The Ramparts and Towers. That covers a good look and the narrated story, and because you set the pace you can always stay on.
Is The Ramparts and Towers worth your time?
The Ramparts and Towers is among the 11 narrated highlights the Gingerguide team chose for Mont-Saint-Michel, so it is worth a look. Hear the story for the context, then ask the AI guide for anything more.
Nearby stops in Mont-Saint-Michel
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Hear the story of The Ramparts and Towers
Preview the Mont-Saint-Michel tour free in the Gingerguide app.