The Grimaldi tower is one of two towers that stand next to the Saint-Esprit chapel and the old cathedral in Antibes, in the Alpes-Maritimes department of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France.

The construction of the tower is estimated to have taken place in the 11th century.^[1]

This construction was therefore contemporaneous with the possession of the seigneury of Antibes by the Rodoald family. In the 10th century, Antibes was under constant threat of attack by the Saracens, who maintained a permanent fortified settlement near Fraxinetum, near Saint-Tropez. Rodoald and his family are thought to have been responsible for the construction of the tower for defensive purposes.

The seigniory of Antibes was given to the bishop of Grasse in 1275. The Bishop of Grasse retained temporal jurisdiction until the time of Clement VII who, in 1383, transferred it to the Grimaldi family for 9,000 florins. Although the Grimaldi family was already powerful elsewhere in the Mediterranean region, it only arrived in Antibes much later— about 1378.^[2] Thus, although the tower carries the Grimaldi name, it was not built by them.

The Grimaldi tower is 30 meters high with a square section of 7.50 m per side. The thickness of the walls at the base is 2 meters. The exterior facing has 70 dressed stone courses whose thicknesses vary between 0.55 m and 0.30 m. Many of these stones were salvaged from Roman buildings and some have Roman inscriptions and appear to be elements of architraves or cornices.^[3]

The interior is divided into four floors, the upper three of which are approximately equal in height, and half as high as the ground floor. The ground floor communicates with the first floor only by a square hole and one could descend there only by a ladder.

The original access door to the tower, located on the north face, has been walled over. Its threshold was 0.60 m above the floor of the first floor, or 6 m above the ground. Thus, the tower could only be accessed by a sliding ladder. The current accesses are modern: there is one on the west facade at 1.40 m above the ground, and one on the east facade.

The second and third floors received daylight only through barbicans 0.80 m wide, on each side, placed 1 m above the floor. The openings on the third floor, which hold the bells, are modern.

The upper platform is supported by a vault. It is reached by a stone staircase.

The Grimaldi tower now serves as the bell tower of the Antibes Cathedral (French: Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Immaculée-Conception d'Antibes), which is located directly across the street.

The Ministry of Culture listed the Grimaldi tower, together with the Cathedral and the adjoining chapel of the Holy Spirit, as a heritage monument by order of 16 October 1945.^[4]

• History of Provence
• Muslim presence in Medieval France

• This article contains some texts that have been translated from the equivalent article in Wikipedia francophone, Fr:Tour Grimaldi.