Page 140 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Provence & The Côte d'Azur

138  PROVENCE AREA B Y AREA

6 Aigues-Mortes
Tour de la Poudrière
A lone, sturdy sentinel set among the salt marshes of the was the arsenal, where
Camargue, Aigues-Mortes (“dead waters” in Provençal) looks weapons and gun-
today much as it must have done when it was completed, powder were stored.
around 1300. Then, however, the Rhône had not yet deposited
Porte de
the silt which now landlocks the town. Canals transported l’Arsenal
the vast stone blocks to make its walls from the quarries of
Beaucaire, and the town’s founder, Louis IX, set sail from
under the shadow of Tour de Constance on his crusade of
1248 (see pp46–7). Only the Hundred Years’ War saw its
ramparts breached: now its gates are always open to
the besieging armies of admiring visitors. RUE DE L’ARSENAL

King Louis IX
Saint Louis, as he was to become,
built Aigues-Mortes as his only
Mediterranean sea port.
People had to be bribed
to come and settle in R U E H O C H E
this inhospitable spot. R U E R O G E R S A L E N G R O

R U E H O C H E

B O U L E V A R D G A M B E T TA R U E E M I L E

R U E B A U D I N
P
Porte de la Reineorte de la Reine
was named for
Anne of Austria,
who visited the
town in 1622.

Tour de la Mèche or R U E D E L A R E P U B L I Q U E
“wick tower” held a
constant flame used
to light cannon fuses.

Chapelle des
Pénitents Blancs
Tour du Sel

Chapelle des Pénitents Gris
Built around 1607, this chapel
. The Ramparts is still used by an order founded
The 1,634-m (1-mile) long in 1400. Named for their grey
walls are punctuated by ten cowls, they walk with their
gates, six towers, arrow slits white-cowled former rivals in
and overhanging latrines. the Palm Sunday procession.
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp200–1 and pp212–15