Porte Saint-André

What you will see

Stand back from the gate to see its four round arches and, above them, the ten arcades of the gallery, whose capitals come close to the Ionic order. The lower part is built of pale limestone, while the gallery uses a darker arkose, a sign of the Roman rebuilding. Beside the gate, the surviving tower, rounded on the outside and flat on the town side, now houses the Protestant church.

History

Under Augustus, Augustodunum received a wall about 6 kilometres long with four main gates. The Porte Saint-André, also called the Porte de Langres, opened the road east towards Andemantunnum, today's Langres. Two wide central passages served carts and riders, and two narrower side passages served people on foot. Above them ran a gallery of ten arcades carrying the wall walk, and two massive towers about 10 metres wide stood on either side.

The gallery was rebuilt in Roman times in a different stone, an arkose quarried about ten kilometres east of Autun. By 1250 the northern tower had become a church, and a chapel blocked the passage beside it. Sold at the Revolution, the tower was bought back by the State in 1844, and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc restored the whole gate to its Roman appearance, rebuilding the most damaged parts. The gate was classified as a historic monument in 1846; the southern tower has disappeared.