Built in the 11th century to defend the Porte Notre-Dame, the Tour des Prisons is located in the heart of the historic center of Lunel.
During the Wars of Religion, it was transformed into a prison, a function it performed until 1917.
Today, the Tower of the Prisons has become a Museum whose entrance is done by the Tourist Office and which proves to be unusual and even frightening.
In the darkness, with a flashlight in hand, and with a background music of prisoners' words, you can discover more than 300 graffiti, including 210 in the dungeons on the first floor, inscriptions, religious signs, drawings, engraved hearts and suns, testimonies of the prisoners' passage through these walls during 4 centuries.
In total, 52 prisoners have engraved their name or first name. A dozen inscriptions speak of injustice, suffering or personal messages.
The Prison Tower is 16 meters high and includes a cell on the first floor, two dungeons on the first floor, a walkway and intermediate rooms on the floor above, and a guard room on the top floor that became the "passenger room".
In addition to the beautifully restored doors and the fireplace of the guard room, many everyday objects were found during the excavations, mainly in the latrines of the prison.
Some of these objects, tokens, marbles, newspaper clippings, inkwells, dice, scissors, buttons, more than 100 shoes with leather or rope soles, clay or wooden pipes, scissors, clasps, and many rags... are displayed in the windows of the guard room.
Musée de la Tour des Prisons
16 Cours Gabriel Péri,
34400 Lunel
Tel : 04 67 71 01 37
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