Tour Saint-Jacques
Flamboyant Gothic bell tower where Pascal proved air has weight, later repurposed as a shot tower.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the Tour Saint-Jacques in Paris follows Blaise Pascal up its steps on October 8, 1648, carrying a glass tube of mercury to test whether air itself has weight, building on Torricelli's barometer experiments. It then turns to the tower's stranger second life: after the Revolution left the church below in ruins and demolition crews tore it down in 1797, new owners kept the tower for an unusual industrial purpose involving molten lead. Find the statue of Pascal still standing at its base.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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