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Origin and history

The Dinan Clock Tower, built at the end of the 15th century under the leadership of the city's council of notables, was erected as a municipal meeting room, a fire watch Tower and a place for archives. His first stone was laid by Jehan II of Rosnyvinen, governor of Dinan (1471-1481), in the rue de la Corduennerye. In 1500, the Duchess Anne of Brittany ordered the installation of a presidial and authorized, by letters patent in 1507, the addition of a clock and a bell named Anne (recast in 1906 under the name Duchess Anne), thus raising the tower to the rank of belfry.

The clock, made in 1498 by the Haitian watchmaker Hamzer, was installed in 1505 and replaced in 1657 before being stopped in 1847. Saved by Luigi Odorici, curator of the Dinan Museum, she has been a member of municipal collections since then. The tower, symbol of communal power, housed the municipality until the Revolution and was opened to the public in 1932. Its original mechanism and its five bells (including Duchess Anne, 2,355 kg) still beat the life of the city today, ringing every quarter hour.

Ranked a Historic Monument in 1910, the tower combines a square base (8 m side) and an upper octagonal part, topped by an arrow in slate. Its spiral staircase, dust and chimneys testify to its past use. After losing its status as the highest building of Dinan (beyond the bell tower of Saint-Sauveur, 60 m), it offers a panorama of the city from its platform, accessible by a passage opened in 1984 between rue de l'Horloge and Place du Guesclin.

The bells, with separate functions, include Noguette (Gothic Bell), Françoise and Jacqueline (quarter hour), and Duchess Anne (hours). The small bell of 1823, melted by the Veuve Guillaume Viel, completes this ensemble. The tower, a communal property, illustrates the Breton civil architecture of the Renaissance and the role of belfries in medieval urban administration.

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