Fort la Latte
Interesting facts
- The castle's builder, Étienne III Gouÿon, is a direct paternal-line ancestor of Prince Albert II of Monaco, who has visited the fort in the footsteps of his forebears.
- Despite centuries of use as a fortress and later a home, the castle was connected to mains electricity only in 2001.
- The courtyard was filled in during the 17th century to carry cannon, so the original medieval ground lies up to eight metres below today's surface.
- Because the fort sits on solid rock where no well could be dug, the garrison of about forty men relied on a rainwater cistern holding some 20,000 litres.
- A false drawbridge facing the sea was meant to lure attacking ships towards strong currents and rocks, though it proved of little use.
- The drawbridges of the two gatehouses were deliberately set off-axis from each other to make it harder to manoeuvre a battering ram through.
- Heating cannonballs red-hot took about eight hours, and the French idiom 'tirer à boulets rouges', to attack fiercely, comes from such ovens.
- Carvings of the four evangelists' symbols ring the keep, and its entrance is crowned by the mermaid emblem of the Goyon family.
- According to legend, a small standing stone on the path to the fort is the tooth or the finger of the giant Gargantua.
- Its second capture came in 1597, when Catholic League forces took it from defenders loyal to Henry IV and left it partly burned.
Why it is worth it
Fort la Latte stands on a rocky headland of the Breton coast, directly above the sea. Its stone keep, gatehouses and curtain walls seem to grow out of the cliff, and from the ramparts the view sweeps across the Bay of Saint-Malo toward Cap Fréhel, a few kilometres to the northwest.
The castle was begun in the 1340s by Étienne III Gouÿon, lord of Matignon, and was originally known as the Château de la Roche Goyon after the family that built it. The keep, with its machicolations, dates from about 1365–1370. In the turbulent politics of medieval Brittany the fortress came under siege by Bertrand du Guesclin after the return of the Duke of Brittany in 1379, and it was attacked again during the Wars of Religion in the 16th century. Under Louis XIV the coast's defences were reorganised, and the old castle was turned into a fort: bastions were added, eight cannons were installed, and a furnace was built for heating cannonballs red-hot so that they would set wooden ships on fire.
The approach still passes through two gatehouses, each with its own drawbridge, before reaching the inner courtyard and the keep. The fort was classified as a historic monument in 1925. In 1931 it was bought by the historian Frédéric Joüon des Longrais, who devoted more than twenty years to repairing it. The castle's dramatic setting has also attracted filmmakers: the final duel of The Vikings (1958), starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis, was filmed on the keep.
Getting there
The fort lies at Plévenon in the Côtes-d'Armor, about 4 km southeast of Cap Fréhel. Saint-Malo is about 20 km to the east in a straight line across the bay. The nearest French airport is Rennes–Saint-Jacques Airport (RNS), about 78 km away; Jersey Airport (JER) is closer in a straight line but lies across the sea.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Rochers sculptés de Rothéneuf 23.4 km · sculpture
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Fort la Latte, or the Castle of the Rock Goyon, is a castle in the northeast of Brittany, about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) southeast of Cap Fréhel and about 35 kilometres (22 mi) west of Saint-Malo, in the commune of Plévenon, Côtes-d'Armor.
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