Closed since July 2024, the Saint-Nicolas tower of La Rochelle will undergo emergency consolidation work in March. The movements of the building reveal that it cracks from below and “in several directions”.
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It is the symbol of the city of La Rochelle: closed since last July, the Saint-Nicolas tower will be the subject “An emergency comfort operation” And should not reopen to the public before 2030, as South West reports in its January 25 edition. The latest fissurometers surveys placed on the building are not reassuring. They show increased fragility of the building, now surrounded by a wooden palisade intended to secure the site.
The Saint-Nicolas tower in La Rochelle has important cracks, Saturday January 25, 2025, which recently aggravated, requiring emergency intervention in March to consolidate the building.
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© Marc Millet – France Télévisions
“The disorders of the tower have worsenedexplains Stéphanie Lhortolary, administrator of the center of national monuments. This comfort operation is compulsory before emergency work. We will have a year of work (…) and then, from the end of 2026 approximately, we will attack the restoration site. “
The cracks have gone a lot with a now very degraded part.
Stéphanie LhortolaryAdministrator of the Center for National Monuments
In March 2024, the center of historic monuments had identified a first “Abnormal movement of the tower in its northeast switch”. Ce “Movement more important than usual” was quickly “connected to the major equinox tides”. Then, last July, when a fissurometer sparked an alert, a global inspection of the tower revealed that the sharp part, called the spur, which already presented disorders, was in a more disturbing state.
“The disorders had really aggravated, in factcontinues Stéphanie Lhortolary. The cracks have been widely excluded with a now very degraded part “she notes.
► Read also: “Two million euros in emergency repairs”: Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture at the bedside of the Saint-Nicolas tower of La Rochelle
The teams in charge of monitoring the building have so far thought that the tower was moving “In a monolithic way”. Their observations now reveal that “The tower moves in several directions”. On the one hand, “The northeast part rocks naturally”on the other, “The spur rocks in the pass of the port”. “It's as if the tower opened in two, from below”explains Stéphanie Lhortolary. The urgency today is therefore to restore a “Coherence (…) and stability” to the building.
Video duration: 00h01mn56s
In La Rochelle, the Saint-Nicolas tower, which marks the entrance to the port, will be closed to the public at least until 2030. The monument presents several weaknesses which require consolidation work before even considering the restoration work. The site should start in March, for a cost of around 5 million euros. Report by Damien Lefauconnier and Marc Millet.
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© France Télévisions
We will have to pass 12 km of cables which will be retained by metal frames.
Stéphanie LhortolaryAdministrator of the Center for National Monuments
The work to be carried out in priority promises to be substantial and should cost almost five million euros, “Funded by the Ministry of Culture”confirms Stéphanie Lhortolary. “You have to circle the upper parts of the tower, because the upper parts do not deform like the low parts. You have to circle them.” As for the spur, weakened, and the northwest turret which tends to detach itself, too, “We will have to pass tiering inside the tower to connect these parts”. Then, it will be necessary to stabilize the underside. “We will have to pass 12 km of cables which will be retained by metal frames.”
In the end, these emergency operations should make it possible to consolidate the tower and prevent it from detaching in several pieces.
The emergency consolidation site should start in March 2025.
