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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Pine Tower is a vestige of the old ramparts of Montpellier, built between the 2nd half of the 12th century and the 4th quarter of the 14th century. It was one of the 25 towers of the fortified enclosure protecting the city, of which it is one of the last testimonies with the tower of the Babote and the gate of the Blanquerie. Originally 29 metres high, it overlooked a ditch filled in 1778, reducing its height by 4 metres. Its structure combines two periods: a shell stone base (XIIth–XIIIth centuries) and an irregularly seated summit (XIVth century), topped by mâchicoulis.

Initially defensive, the tower lost this role in 1592 to become a home, then a prison in 1792 during the Revolution. Acquired by the city in 1809, it successively houses an asylum for young repentant girls, the Black sisters (until 1836), then the sisters of the Madeleine (until 1861). Restored in 1886, it houses the municipal archives before sheltering, since 2003, two local associations: the Brotherhood of Barons de Caravètes and La Garriga. A plaque in Occitan commemorates Jacques I of Aragon, born in Montpellier in 1208 and lord of the city.

The tower owes its name to the pine trees growing at its top since the beginning of the eighteenth century, a plant curiosity maintained by the municipality. A local legend, inspired by a prediction attributed to Nostradamus (a former student of the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier), states that "when the pine trees disappear, the city will perish". Despite the fall of a tree in 1828, the city prospered, and the pine trees (replaced by cypresses in 1960) remained a symbol of identity. Classified as a historical monument since December 21, 1925, the tower belongs to the commune and embodies the medieval Montpellieran heritage.

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