Home»All Photographs»France World Heritage (click to see more)»Belfries of France»Dunkerque, L'Eglise St-Eloi

The medieval Belfry, a World Heritage Site, is an attractive, uniquely free standing, 58m/190ft high belfry that dates back to the 13th century that was later made taller in 1440. Finely decorated with Gothic styles arches it was originally built by the Bishop of Cambrai as a beacon for the community. It once served as the bell-tower to Eglis (church) St-Éloi but the church burned to the ground in 1558 effectively leaving the belfry as a separate entity. The Belfry was spared again in the 1940s emerging as one of the few buildings that miraculously survived the bombing of World War II. Today it has the accolade of being the oldest monument in town.
The tower has a peal of 48 bells which ring out the Jean Bart tune on the hour and other popular tunes every 15 minutes. At its base, there is a cenotaph dedicated to the memory of the soldiers of the First World War.
In June 1792 the French astronomers Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre and Pierre François André Méchain set out to measure the meridian arc distance from Dunkirk to Barcelona, two cities lying on approximately the same longitude as each other and also the longitude through Paris. The belfry was chosen as the reference point in Dunkirk.