Marguerite Tower

The Marguerite Tower, locally known as Tour Marguerite, stands in the town of Argentan, in the Orne department in France.

The Marguerite Tower was built around 1360. It is the only one remaining of 16 towers which defended the town in the 14th century. All the other towers were destroyed during the 17th and 18th centuries.

During the 17th century it was used as a prison for girls accused of debauchery. Why the tower was named Marguerite is not known for sure; it could be because of a link to Marguerite of Lorraine, a sister-in-law of the 17th century French King Louis XIII, or a young woman by that name who was allegedly imprisoned here.

The tower served as a depot for the town in the 18th-19th centuries and also as a drunk tank until the 1930s. It lost its roof during the Allied invasion of German-occupied Europe in WW II, which was only restored in the early 1990s.

The 3-storey round tower is 17 meters high and has a diameter of 10 meters.

At present Marguerite Tower can be visited but sadly enough it was closed due to corona measures when I came by. A nice tower. The Argentan Ducal Castle and the Argentan Tower are nearby.

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