Monument · 4e

Tour Saint-Jacques

The Tour Saint-Jacques is the former bell tower, built between 1509 and 1523, of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, a church of which this tower is the sole remaining trace.

Today it stands in the middle of the square that bears its name, in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. Wikipedia ↗

Actually paid

415k €

BMO archives since

1898

No subsidy, investment or public contract could be tied to this place in the open data: day-to-day running costs (upkeep, staff) are not broken down by place. Only subsidies to an operator, investment projects and public contracts that name the place appear here.

Works paid for, year by year415 k €

254 k €

See the 2 works programmes in detail (2009–2012)

RESTAURATION TOUR SAINT JACQUES354 k €RESTAURATION DE LA TOUR SAINT JACQUES61 k €

Payments traced in the City’s published accounts: detailed per works programme until 2017, then only for some large projects from 2019. Each line links to the online accounts.

Key moments

OCTOBER 1995The R.A.T.P. was to contribute to restoring the square; the deliberation left the terms to an attached agreement and stated neither the nature nor the amount of that contribution.The principle of redeveloping the square was approved, the works planned in six separate lots, and the Mayor authorized to sign an agreement with the R.A.T.P. setting the terms of its contribution to restoring the square.

MARCH 2004Before any works contract, the operation received its framework: project management in four tranches, three of them conditional.The principle of the façade-restoration operation was approved; the Mayor was authorized to sign the project-management contract, negotiated in four tranches, with Jean-François LAGNEAU, lead contractor, and Jacques DESMARQUEST, co-contractor.

JULY 2008397,976.42 euros including tax for the square's green spaces: the costing covers the surroundings, not the tower's stonework.The Mayor was authorized to sign lot no. 5, "green spaces" — restoring the square — for an amount of 397,976.42 euros including tax, with the company CERCIS.

JUNE 2014According to the mayor of the 4th arrondissement, opening the site to visitors followed the statuary restoration work.A temporary public-domain occupancy agreement was examined; the mayor of the 4th arrondissement, Christophe GIRARD, supported it and linked the tower's opening to visitors to the statuary restoration work and to a request from the Saint-Merri neighbourhood council.

JULY 2023Removing the railings is only under study; the deputy mayor and the mayor of Paris Centre disagree on the priority to give it.Motion by Maud GATEL asking that the square's railings be kept: deputy mayor Christophe NAJDOVSKI defended studying their removal, while Ariel WEIL, mayor of Paris Centre, placed the urgency elsewhere and mentioned railings removed in 1969 and put back in 1995.

See 2 more moments

OCTOBER 1999The scaffolding was approved in 1999; the principle of restoring the façades would not be approved until March 2004.The principle of supplying and erecting scaffolding on the tower was approved, the contract planned as an open tender with a single tranche and single lot, and the Mayor authorized to sign it.

FEBRUARY 2005Of the three tranches in the stone-and-sculpture lot, only one is firm.Awarding lot no. 1, "cut stone; sculpture; sculpture restoration," was approved: an open European tender, one firm tranche and two conditional tranches.

AI reading of 7 documents out of the 1499 returned by the search — each line links to its deliberation.

In the Municipal Bulletin

In the municipal bulletin, the Tour Saint-Jacques appears not as a monument but as an instrument: an annex of the Montsouris municipal observatory, it served as a weather station. In 1898, a weekly statistic there recorded wind reaching 24 kilometres per hour, against 29 at Montsouris. In 1902, the Bulletin described the weather service of the municipal observatory — Montsouris and Tour Saint-Jacques — which published a daily bulletin summarizing the weather in the Paris region, posted in the courtyards of the Hôtel de Ville and at the doors of the town halls of the twenty arrondissements. The tower still appears in 1923 in wind-speed readings, alongside the Eiffel Tower. Over this period, the archive shows it only in this role: a measuring point for the Parisian sky, cited week after week among the region's stations.

Read the 3 citations in the municipal bulletin archives (Gallica)

1898“-servatory of Montsouris and annex of the Tour Saint-Jacques. — C weekly statistic (16th week … Its speed, averaging 14 kilom. per hour, reaches its maximum, 29…”

1902“The weather service of the municipal observatory (Montsouris and Tour Saint-Jacques) publishes a daily Bulletin summarizing the weather situation in the Paris r…”

1923“Saint-Denis, 0°0 … Parc Saint-Maur. drops … Maximum speed: 7 m. at the Office national météorologique, 16 m. at Le Bourget, 10 m. at Parc Saint-Maur, 11 m. at M…”

Account written by AI from the selected extracts of the city’s official bulletin — each extract links to the scanned page on Gallica.

Sources

Conseil de Paris (Débat-Délibs) ↗ · Bulletin municipal officiel (Gallica/BnF) ↗ · CA annexes, Ville de Paris · Wikipédia ↗

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