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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Armagnac Tower, also known as the Senechal Tower, was built in the 15th century in Auch (Gers) on the orders of the local archbishop to serve as a prison. Integrated with the cathedral ensemble, it is accessible by the sacristy of St Mary's Cathedral, with which it shares a direct architectural link. Its basements and lower floors house vaulted cells, while the upper levels, served by a stone slug staircase, offer panoramic views of the city and its cathedral.

Under the Ancien Régime, the tower lost its prison function to become an archive room, before regaining its original use as a prison after 1792, during the Terror, then under the Second Empire after Napoleon III's coup d'état in 1851. Its 2 metres thick walls and seven floors, each with small cells (4 to 5 m2), testify to its repressive role. Ranked a historic monument in 1945, it is now a private property whose interior has been banned from the public since its renovation in 2013.

The architecture of the tower reflects its dual defensive and symbolic vocation. The highest cell, open to the four cardinal points, could evoke a surveillance or power dimension. Its complex access, through religious spaces (capitular hall, sacristy), emphasizes its integration into the ecclesiastical system of the city. The descriptions also mention iron doors and cradle vaults, characteristic of medieval constructions intended for confinement.

Historical sources, such as Jacques Lapart's work (2006), highlight its link with Gers' protected heritage. The tower is cited in inventories of historical monuments, with a precise location on Salinis Square, although its access remains restricted. Its classification in 1945 by the Ministry of Culture makes it a major witness to the judicial and architectural history of the Occitan region.

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