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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The belfry of Carpentras, located on the Place de l'Horloge, is the last vestige of the city's first communal house, built at the end of the 15th century. In 1470, the council of the three consuls (representing the nobility of robe, the nobility of sword and the bourgeoisie) decided to erect this building on the site of the house of Erneus d'Andardy. The architect Blaise Lescuyer, already known for his work at the Cathedral of Saint-Siffrein in Carpentras and Avignon, is responsible for this. The tower, of heptagonal shape, peaks at 22 meters and houses a spiral staircase serving the old floors of the city hall.

In 1572, after the partial collapse of the Cathedral of Saint-Siffrein depriving the city of a bell tower, the city council decided to increase the belfry's campanile. The work, entrusted to the locksmith Nicolas Clavis, was completed in 1576 with the installation of a bell. The 1713 fire destroyed the common house, but some archives, including a Gothic four-key vault (now at the Carpentras Museum), were saved. After the disaster, the town hall was transferred to the mansion of the La Roque family, leaving the belfry as the only witness of the original building.

Ranked a historic monument in 1987, the belfry bears witness to the architectural evolution of the Renaissance in the 20th century. Its structure combines cut stone and wrought iron, with decorative elements such as zoomorphic gargoyles and a guardrail in straight bars. The tower also retains traces of its past use: chapel on the ground floor, council room on the first floor, and arsenal on the upper floor. Restorations, such as the drilling of a north-south crossing in 1989, have revealed original decorations, including a well-preserved box ceiling.

The belfry illustrates the centralization of governmental functions (administrative, judicial and military) in the same place, typical of medieval and renaissant municipalities. Its history also reflects the technical and artistic challenges of its time, from its construction by Blaise Lescuyer to subsequent additions, such as the wrought iron campanile. Today owned by the municipality, it remains a symbol of the Carpentrasian and Provencal heritage.

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