France

The Château de Gisors is a castle in the town of Gisors the department of Eure, France. The castle was a key fortress of the Dukes of Normandy in the 11th and 12th centuries. It was intended to defend the Anglo-Norman Vexin territory from the pretensions of the King of France.

King William II of England ordered Robert of Bellême to build the first castle at Gisors. Henry I of England built the octagonal stone to keep surmounting the motte; his work at Gisors was part of a programme of royal castle building in Normandy during his reign to secure the region against the aspirations of the French crown. It saw the construction of more than 25 castles.

In 1193, as King Richard, I of England (also Duke of Normandy) was imprisoned in Germany, the castle, while under the command of Gilbert de Vascoeuil fell into the hands of King Philip II of France. After Richard’s death in 1199, Philip conquered much of the rest of Normandy and Gisors thereafter lost a good part of its importance as a frontier castle. 

The castle is also known for its links with the Templars. Put into their charge by the French king between 1158 and 1160, it became the final prison of the Grand Master of the Order, Jacques de Molay, in 1314.

Although it has been estimated that the bailey could have housed 1,000 soldiers, in 1438 (during the Hundred Years’ War) the English garrison numbered just 90. By 1448, this had decreased to 43.

The first building work is dated to about 1095 and consisted of a motte, which was enclosed in a spacious courtyard or bailey. Henry I of England, Duke of Normandy, added an octagonal stone keep to the motte.

After 1161, important reinforcement work saw this keep raised and augmented; the wooden palisade of the motte converted to stone, thus forming a chemise; and the outer wall of the bailey was completed in stone with flanking towers. The octagonal keep is considered one of the best-preserved examples of a shell keep.

A second keep, cylindrical, called the Prisoner’s Tower was added to the outer wall of the castle at the start of the 13th century, following the French conquest of Normandy. Further reinforcement was added during the Hundred Years’ War. In the 16th century, earthen ramparts were built.

Since 1862, the Château de Gisors has been recognised as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.

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France

The Château de Foix  is a castle which dominates the town of Foix in the French département of Ariège. An important tourist site, it is known as the centre of the Cathars. It has been listed since 1840 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.

Built In the style of 7th-century fortification, the castle is known from 987. In 1002, it was mentioned in the will of Roger I, Count of Carcassonne, who bequeathed the fortress to his youngest child, Bernard.

In effect, the family ruling over the region was installed here which allowed them to control access to the upper Ariège valley and to keep surveillance from this strategic point over the lower land, protected behind impregnable walls. Château de Foix

In 1034, the castle became the capital of the County of Foix and played a decisive role in medieval military history.

During the two following centuries, the castle was home to Counts with shining personalities who became the soul of the Occitan resistance during the crusade against the Albigensians. The county became a privileged refuge for persecuted Cathars.

The castle, often besieged (notably by Simon de Montfort in 1211 and 1212), resisted assault and was only taken once, in 1486, thanks to treachery during the war between two branches of the Foix family.

From the 14th century, the Counts of Foix spent less and less time in the uncomfortable castle, preferring the Governors’ Palace (Palais des gouverneurs). From 1479, the Counts of Foix became Kings of Navarre and the last of them, made Henri IV of France, annexed his Pyrenean lands to France.

As the seat of the Governor of the Foix region from the 15th century, the castle continued to ensure the defence of the area, notably during the Wars of Religion. Alone of all the castles in the region, it was exempted from the destruction orders of Richelieu (1632-1638).

Until the Revolution, the fortress remained a garrison. Its life was brightened with grand receptions for its governors, including the Count of Tréville, captain of musketeers under Louis XIII and Marshal Philippe Henri de Ségur, one of Louis XVI’s ministers.

The Round Tower, built in the 15th century, is the most recent, the two square towers having been built before the 11th century. They served as a political and civil prison for four centuries until 1862.

Since 1930, the castle has housed the collections of the Ariège départemental museum. Sections on prehistory, Gallo-Roman and mediaeval archaeology tell the history of Ariège from ancient times.

Currently, the museum is rearranging exhibits to concentrate on the history of the castle site so as to recreate the life of Foix at the time of the Counts.

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France

Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age, although the nature of the early settlement is unclear. There has been a royal castle on the rock since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century, and the site continued at times to be a royal residence until 1633. From the 15th century, the castle’s residential role declined, and by the 17th century, it was principally used as military barracks with a large garrison. Its importance as a part of Scotland’s national heritage was recognised increasingly from the early 19th century onwards, and various restoration programmes have been carried out over the past century and a half.

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France

The Fort de Joux or Château de Joux is a castle, later transformed into a fort, located in La Cluse-et-Mijoux in the Doubs department in the Jura mountains of France. It commands the mountain pass Cluse de Pontarlier.

The château then passed to Charles the Bold, Mary of Burgundy, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (Habsburgs), Margaret of Austria, and Charles Quint, with each successive owner making further improvements. Its most famous remodeler was Vauban, who modernised it between 1678 and 1693. It was finally annexed by France in 1678 under Louis XIV.

The Austrians captured the château in 1814. Later, the construction of the forts at Larmont in the 19th century provided reinforcement. In 1879, Captain (later Marshal) Joseph Joffre, then a military engineering officer, modernised the château and transformed it into a fort included in the Maginot Line to prevent German invasion from Swiss territory.

It served as a prison for successive French governments between the 17th and the 19th centuries. In that capacity, the château is best known for imprisoning several famous figures, including Mirabeau, Heinrich von Kleist, and the leader of the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint Louverture, who died there on 7 April 1803.

In addition to being used as a prison, the château played a part in the defence of the region until the First World War.

The fortress currently houses a museum of arms that exhibits more than 600 rare weapons dating from the early 18th to the 20th centuries, including a rare 1717 rifle. The castle also has a well which, at 147 metres (482 ft), was once the deepest in France. Cut with a horizontal gallery and partially filled, it is now the third deepest at about 101 metres (331 ft).

Since 1949, the French Ministry of Culture has listed the château as a monument historique.

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