Tour Henri VIII

The Henry VIII Tower, also called 'Grosse Tour' or 'Tour des Anglais', is the only visible remains of the citadel that this monarch built between 1515 and 1518 .

This "castle", as the Tournaisians call it because it perpetuates the location of the residence of the Flemish lords of Tournai, was built to control the city that fell under English rule in 1513. The new fortifications cover a total area of ​​approximately 15 hectares including the Sint-Niklaas Church, the Sint-André Hospital and the Royal House. The walls of the second city wall, which were reinforced for the occasion, then formed the north and west flanks of a square citadel that was to house 5,000 men. Six new artillery towers, including this tower, built along the south and east flanks, completed a defense system dismantled by Vauban at the end of the 17th century.

Despite the departure of the English in 1519, this district continued to function independently of the rest of the city until around 1670, when the fortress was dismantled by Louis XIV who ordered the construction of a citadel on the other side of the city.

The Henry VIII Tower has been a protected monument since 1963 and included on the exceptional heritage list. It presents architectural and archaeological interest in addition to its integrity, its rarity and its typological representativeness.

It is an imposing round artillery tower with a diameter of 27.5 meters and a height of 21 meters. The more than 6.5 meters thick walls consist of a block of stone between two facades. Originally the building may have been topped with a domed parapet.

The masonry is pierced with rare openings: a solid entrance on the ground floor, a door giving access to the walkway and six gunboats. Inside, the tower is divided into two casemate levels . A waiting room, quadrangular and vaulted, is also built into the thickness of the wall.

Note also that archaeological research carried out in 2007-2008, prior to a restoration project not yet completed, revealed the presence of a tower with a diameter of 11 meters under the current building . It is a fortification element belonging to the second municipal enclosure and dates from the end of the 13th - beginning of the 14th century.

Willem Vandenameele