We walk into the gorgeous city old center with wooden houses from as far back as the 14C, and came up to see the tour d’Horloge. The Tour d’Horloge or belfry of Dinan, is a tower built at the end of the 15C, located rue de l’Horloge , For reference, Dinan is in the Côtes-d’Armor department 22 of the region of Bretagne. The tower is 45 meters high, which symbolizes the prosperity of the city. It still has the bell offered by the Duchess Anne de Bretagne and Queen of France.
I have look up this monument briefly mentioned in previous posts, and decided to do a separate post with older pictures as it merits me think. Hope you enjoy the post on the Belfry or Tour d’Horloge of Dinan!
Under the reign of Duke François II of Brittany, the council of notables decides on the construction of a building, to serve as a meeting room, except for the Great meetings which are held in the chapter house of the Jacobins convent , and conservation of archives, as well as a watchtower to prevent fires that are too frequent in the city. It was Jehan II de Rosnyvinen, Lord of Vaucouleurs then governor of the city who laid the first stone in the rue de la Corduennerye. Twenty years later, in 1500 the Duchess Anne of Brittany ordered her representative, governor of the city: the viscount of Rohan, to install a presidial and granted by letters patent in 1507 permission to put a clock in the town’s tower, raising it to the rank of belfry, with the installation of a bell of which she is the godmother and Monsieur de Rohan the godfather. The bell received the first name of Anne. It will ring from that day to the year 1906, when it will be melted down and remade identically with a new name: Duchess Anne. Dinan becomes after Rennes and Fougères, the third town in Brittany to have a belfry. The clock manufactured in 1498 was ordered by the town in 1505 and installed at the same time as the bell. It will be changed in 1657 and stopped in 1847. It will remain the seat of the town until the French revolution which will subsequently move according to local events, to settle in 1817 in place de l’Hospice.
The belfry, at the top of which we can see from its circular platform, a panoramic viewpoint over the city of Dinan, was opened to the public in 1932.The passage which links the rue de l’Horloge to the Place du Guesclin was opened in 1984. The clock still strikes every quarter of an hour, half an hour, and hour. The base of the building has a square plan of 8 meters on each side and from the 4th floor (5th US) becomes octagonal. The tower is accessed by the spiral staircase of the turret adjoining the west facade which is itself surmounted by a half-peppered roof with cut sides and double slope.
This Tour d’Horloge contains five bells . A small bell dated 1823, Noguette, the smallest of the four bells installed under the headdress of the tower is a Gothic style. Françoise, the small quarter bell weighs 121 kg for 590 mm in diameter. Jacqueline, the fat quarter bell weighs 154 kg for 640 mm in diameter. Duchesse Anne, ,the bell of the hours, remelted in 1905 as an almost identical copy of the bell of 1507, weighs 2.355 kg for 1.585 mm in diameter. It scores at once every hour. The three bells equipped with a ringing system give the exact time from 7h to 22h inclusive thanks to a radio-synchronized control panel on the time.
The city of Dinan on the Clock tower : https://www.dinan.fr/156/tour-de-l-horloge
The Dinan Cap Fréhel tourist office on Dinan: https://www.dinan-capfrehel.com/en/our-destination/not-to-be-missed-any-circumstances/dinan-unmissable-medieval-city-brittany/
There you go folks, another dandy monument in my lovely Bretagne and my belle France. Dinan is very nice indeed, and plenty to see, search in my blog for more of it. For now enjoy the Tour d’Horloge as we did.
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 