La Tour Saint-Jacques
The 14th-century enclosure was defended by 7 square towers, half-round turrets, 5 gates and 1 postern.
A fortified city. Since the end of the 12th century, the city of Pertuis has had a "barri" or surrounding wall. In the middle of the XIVth century, the Great Companies (1) were threatening Provence. In 1356, Pertuis was taken without a blow by a band of demobilized soldiers, the "Truchins" (2), led by Arnaud de Cervole, known as "the Archpriest". Four years later, Guillaume Roger de Beaufort, Lord of Pertuis, undertook the reconstruction and enlargement of the fortifications. The work was financed by additional taxes instituted by the City Council and lasted until 1381.
One of the 7 towers: the Saint-Jacques tower. This tower was also called the Niais tower (3), although this name may be that of the half-round tower, located nearby, beyond the rue Basse. Open at the throat, i.e. towards the interior of the city, it houses two barrel-vaulted rooms commanding three loopholes. The first floor opens onto the overhanging walkway, the remains of which can still be seen. The tower is surmounted by a platform, protected by a crenellation on machicolation with multiple corbels. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was still crowned with all its crenellations and merlons pierced with archways. The best preserved witness of the old fortifications, it was restored in 1978.
"Pertuis was sowing beans". Thus begins the tale of Paul Arène, a Provençal poet, "Les haricots de Pitalugue", whose hero lives in a small house near the Portail-des-chiens.
Near the Saint-Jacques tower, this gate or poterne was a simple pedestrian door at the end of the rue Basse. The fable reminds us of the importance of bean cultivation in our region in the 19th century: "because Pertuis has this claim, which is almost justified, to supply the whole of France with beans".
on April 5, 1930, the tower was registered as a historical monument.
(1) Mercenary soldiers dismissed at the end of the Hundred Years War.
(2) From the Gascon truca : to fight.
(3) Nais : place where hemp was rolled.
