|
Drawing from "CHÂTEAUNEUF DU PAPE Mémoire
d'un village" by Jean-Claude Portes.
|
|
The drawing to the left shows
the remparts with its towers as they have been from XIV century. The
inner circle around the castle dates back to XI century. As mentioned on the
page about the name of the town
it was these old fortifications which gave name to the town.
The dramatic increase of the population after the popes
built the castle made it necessary to make new remparts. They were built in
the same century as the castle but was not built by the pope but by the
citizens of the town. This has been a work demanding much labour and many
resourses from the citizens. This was also recognized as they in a period from 1381 were given reduction in taxes (of wine, goods and houses)
to the lord of the town to provide for the
expenditure caused by
the work.
The rempart was built to protect the town from brigands. In times of plague
it has been difficult for strangers to enter the town at all.
There were two entrances to the town. To the north Porte Rouge in direction
Orange and to the south Porte
d’Avignon.
Until late XVIII century the doors to the town were closed from darkness to
sunrise. Nobody could get through whatever had caused the delay.
In the next century the importance of remparts was gone and in 1842 the
council decided to tear down the main entrance Porte d'Avignon (or Grand
Portail)
To day some parts of the remparts are seen different places in the town. |
