Ardon Gate

Laon may no longer be listed as one of France’s major metropolises, but you should know that it once was a royal city, and the favorite residence of the Carolingians. This gate, which opens the entrance to the citadel, is called Ardon Gate. It was formerly known as “Porte Royée”, the Royal Gate, due to its proximity to the now-defunct royal palace of Laon. Both the ramparts and the gate have undergone many alterations over time. We know that the city was already fortified in the 9th century, and that its walls repelled the Normans in 882. They were later extended to protect the western part of the city, known as ‘bourg’, the village centre. The present Ardon gate is a double gate consisting of a fortified gatehouse  and a portcullis. The former is the entrance building of a castle, in this case a pair of towers, and the latter is a gate that slided down to close off the entrance. The gate dates as far back as the 10th century, but its current look dates from the 13th and 14th centuries. There was in fact a second carved gate in front of the one you see today, but it was destroyed in 1858. Right beside the gate, there’s a fountain and a wash-house, which you can still see today, if you go down the stairs on the other side of the street. Legend has it that it was through this gate that Charlemagne’s nephew, the famous Roland from the epic poem, fled to Roncesvalles, where he met his fate and became a legendary hero of the Middle Ages.