The Tour
Saint-Jacques stands alone in the middle of a little garden of the same name.
A tower in
the flamboyant Gothic style, built between 1509 and 1523, the Tour
Saint-Jacques is the only remaining vestige of the Eglise
Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie destroyed in 1797.
This
sanctuary was the meeting point on the Via Toronensis (or Tours route) of the
pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela (Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle).
The statue
of Blaise Pascal, at the base of the tower, is a reminder that it was here that
he repeated his barometric experiments carried out in Puy-de-Dôme.
On the
north-west corner, a statue of Saint Jacques le Majeur dominates the platform
on which a small meteorological station was established in 1891.
It belongs
to the Observatoire de Montsouris.
The sculpted
symbols of the four evangelists (the lion, bull, eagle and man), appear on the
corners.
These
statues were restored during the last century, along with the gargoyles and the
18 statues of saints that decorate the walls of the tower.
--parisinfo.com
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