Château de Pierrefonds

Rising above a village on the edge of the forest of Compiègne, the Château de Pierrefonds looks like the ideal medieval castle from an illuminated manuscript: eight great round towers, double rows of covered wall-walks, steep slate roofs and a keep crowned with crenellated chimneys. Much of what stands today, however, is a nineteenth-century vision of the Middle Ages, rebuilt for Napoleon III by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, which makes Pierrefonds both a fortress and one of the great monuments of the Gothic Revival.

A castle stood here by the twelfth century. Its real history began in 1392, when Louis I, Duke of Orléans, received the county of Valois and set about an almost complete rebuilding around 1393 to 1407, probably to designs by the royal architect Raymond du Temple; his court architect Jean le Noir is also associated with the work. Construction stopped when the duke was assassinated in 1407. The castle changed hands in the wars of the following centuries, and in 1617 royal troops under Cardinal Richelieu took it and began demolishing it, tearing off the roofs and breaching the towers and walls. For two hundred years it remained a romantic ruin, which Napoleon I bought for under 3,000 francs.

In 1857 Napoleon III approved Viollet-le-Duc's project, and what began as a restoration became a full reconstruction for an imperial residence that would also hold the emperor's collection of arms. Each of the eight towers bears a statue of one of the Nine Worthies. In the main courtyard, framed by Renaissance-style facades, stands a bronze equestrian statue of Louis d'Orléans by Emmanuel Frémiet, who also made the salamanders that serve as gargoyles. The Hall of the Heroines is 52 metres long under a panelled wooden barrel vault and lit by 22 windows. Behind the medieval look Viollet-le-Duc used iron in the roof frames, cast-iron gates and a hot-air heating system. Work continued after his death in 1879 and stopped in 1885, having cost five million francs. The castle has since appeared in films and series including The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), the BBC's Merlin and Versailles.

Getting there

Pierrefonds lies in the Oise department of Hauts-de-France, at the southeastern edge of the forest of Compiègne. The nearest town, Crépy-en-Valois, is about 14 km away. The nearest airport is Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG), about 49 km away.