En un regard
Le château en bref
The Tour de Cesson overlooks the Bay of Saint-Brieuc from a rocky spur. About 70 metres high, it has four storeys and walls roughly three metres thick; its summit platform was probably fitted with machicolations. Built from 1395 on the orders of Duke John IV of Brittany and then continued by John V, it protected the mouth of the Gouët and the town of Saint-Brieuc from pirate attacks while allowing the duke to monitor maritime traffic. It became a prison in 1423 and a royal domain around 1532, was occupied during the War of the League (1592-1598), and was sold as national property (bien national) in 1791. Between 1852 and 1877, Alexandre Olivier Glais-Bizoin bought the site and had a manor house built there. Requisitioned by the Germans during the Second World War, it served as a defensive position. Listed as a Monument historique since 1926, the tower and the manor have belonged to the town of Saint-Brieuc since November 2020; the estate, now abandoned, is the subject of a municipal project to open it to the public.