The Tour de Monaco, also known as lo Portal, is a city gate located in the commune of Mur-de-Barrez in Aveyron. It stands as a testimony to the period after 1643, when Mur-de-Barrez and the surrounding Carladez became the property of the Princes of Monaco.
As a gate-tower, it was once the principal entrance to the town. It is one of the few remaining elements of the city's fortifications, which included a rampart flanked by at least four defense towers as established by a 1437 convention between Bonne de Berry and the inhabitants of Mur-de-Barrez.
While Henri IV decided on the destruction of the fortifications and the castle, the order was executed under Louis XIII by an ordinance of 1620. The Tour de Monaco was classified as a historical monument in 1913. In 1923, the town's war memorial was erected against one of the tower's walls.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nicolo Ciampini
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