Porte Comté

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Porte Comté, in Auxonne, is a town gate with a trapezoidal plan, built in 1503 after the visit of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany in May 1501 and the royal order to strengthen the town's defences. It opened the town walls on the side of the Franche-Comté and was protected by a horseshoe-shaped bastion. An inscription beneath the vault recalls that this bastion was raised in 1503 under the governor Engilbert de Clèves, the captain Antoine Godefroy and the mayor Huguenin Courtois. The sculpted decoration includes the porcupine, the emblem of Louis XII. Around 1677, the eastern bastion was rebuilt, and the gate, kept for its architectural quality, was incorporated into its flank and linked to the ravelin by a drawbridge and a fixed bridge. These bridges disappeared at the beginning of the twentieth century, giving way to an English-style garden, and the neighbouring stretch of wall was demolished, leaving only remnants to the east and west.