Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Sarrant gate tower integrates into the village's eastern enclosure, built in alignment with the defensive wall. Almost square structure (7 m side, 22 m high), it has five levels: a vaulted corridor on the ground floor, three bunk rooms, and an attic. Its limestone masonries (medium apparatus) support a roof in hollow tiles, topped by a lantern. The access, protected by a drawbridge (which remains the traces of the chains and the place of withdrawal), one harrow and two doors in broken arch, bears witness to its major defensive role. A patted cross archery (1st floor) and trilobed or geminated windows (upper floors) adorn the facades, while a medieval clock (folio, classified ISMH in 2003) occupies the 3rd level.

The construction seems to have been carried out in two phases in the 14th century. The first (before the middle of the century) includes the fortified passage, the harrow, and the primary defensive elements (archery, crows). The second (second half of the century) adds adorned berries (triloboes, quadrilobes) and a mâchicoulis (disappeared in the seventeenth century, replaced by a roof in pavilion). A 16th century drawing (National Archives) attests to this crenelage, carried by crows still visible. The drawbridge was replaced by a masonry sleeping bridge before the modern epoch, without apparent remains. The tower, the only access to the village until the 19th century, was inscribed in the Historical Monuments in 1927.

A custom charter of 1265 mentions an earlier door, suggesting reconstruction in the 14th century. The homogenous masonries confirm a single-jet construction, despite subsequent changes (carpent in the 17th century). The tower also housed a medieval clock mechanism, whose weights cross the 2nd and 3rd floors. A communal property, it symbolizes the defensive history of this bastide gascon, which is now open to visit in Gers (Occitanie).

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