Solidor Tower

Solidor Tower (French: tour Solidor) is a strengthened keep with three linked towers, located in the estuary of the river Rance in Brittany.

It was built between 1369 and 1382 by John IV, Duke of Brittany (i.e. Jean V in English) to control access to the Rance at a time when the city of Saint-Malo did not recognize his authority. Over the centuries the tower lost its military interest and became a jail. More recently it was a museum celebrating Breton sailors exploring Cape Horn, but it was permanently closed in 2022.

The Solidor Tower is located in the former town of Saint-Servan, which merged with Saint-Malo and Paramé in 1967.

It is featured in the 1957 Wendy Toye film True as a Turtle starring John Gregson, Cecil Parker, June Thorburn and Keith Michell.

Text adapted from “Solidor Tower” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Solidor Tower ranks #2,383 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #184 of the 524 mapped in France. Founded 1369, it is older than 56% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 604 atlas entries founded in the 14th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,737 times in the last 60 days, more than 73% of the atlas. 7 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how France compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗