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Origin and history

The Felletin Tower is a circular bulwark tower dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, located in the town of Felletin, in Creuse (New Aquitaine). It flanked to the south the fortified enclosure of the city, of which it is today the most significant vestige. Its trimming, in irregular apparatus, shows no trace of old openings, but retains a complete row of crows having supported a coronation of machicoulis. In the east, a pruning of masonry still bears witness to the wall that it protected.

Felletin, already fortified during the Hundred Years War, was in the 15th century one of the nine chestnuts in Marche County. The fortifications, including this tower, were probably rehabilitated after the Hundred Years' War, during the Wars of Religion. Their route, partially reconstructed thanks to the present parcellar, included 18 to 20 crenelated towers and four doors decorated with images of the Virgin, as described by Abbé Pataux.

Fortifications disappeared almost entirely in the 18th century. A royal edict of 1775 declassified the enclosure as a royal property, and its stones were reused for local constructions: in 1793, the stones of the dismantled towers were used to repair the Roby bridge, while in 1797 four towers were damaged. At the beginning of the 19th century, only two towers remained, including this one, now included in a private property. The tower was listed as historical monuments by order of 28 October 1963.

The gates of the city, such as the gate of the Pelleterie (demolia in 1819) or the gate of the Fontalanelle (arrested in 1787), gradually disappeared. Their stones were reused for public buildings, such as the College of Felletin. Local production of saltpeter also accelerated the degradation of the towers. Today, this tower remains the last visible witness of a medieval defensive system once imposing.

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