Picard
Picard may refer to:
Places
* Picard, Quebec, Canada
* Picard, California, United States
* Picard (crater), a lunar impact crater in Mare Crisium
People and fictional characters
* Picard (name), a list of people and fictional characters with th ...
: ''Câtiau Couchy'') is a French
castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
Picardy
Picardy (; Picard language, Picard and , , ) is a historical and cultural territory and a former regions of France, administrative region located in northern France. The first mentions of this province date back to the Middle Ages: it gained it ...
, built in the 13th century and renovated by
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (; 27 January 181417 September 1879) was a French architect and author, famous for his restoration of the most prominent medieval landmarks in France. His major restoration projects included Notre-Dame de Paris, ...
in the 19th century.
During its heyday, it was famous for the size of its central tower and the pride of its lords, who adopted the staunchly independent rhyme: ''roi ne suis, ne prince ne duc ne comte aussi; Je suis le sire de Coucy'' ("I am not king, nor prince nor duke nor count; I am the Lord of Coucy").
Background
The castle was constructed in the 1220s by Enguerrand III, Lord of Coucy. The castle proper occupies the tip of a bluff or ''falaise''. It forms an irregular trapezoid of 92 x 35 × 50 × 80 m. At the four corners are cylindrical towers 20 m in diameter (originally 40 m in height). Between two towers on the line of approach was the massive ''donjon'' (
keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...
). The donjon was the largest in Europe, measuring 35 meters wide and 55 meters tall. The smaller towers surrounding the court were as big as the donjons being built at that time by the French monarchy. The rest of the bluff is covered by the lower court of the castle, and the small town.Charles-Laurent Salch, ''Dictionnaire des châteaux et des fortifications du moyen-âge en France ''. Publisher: Editions Publitotal, Strasbourg (France); 1979.
Coucy was occupied in September 1914 by German troops during World War I. It became a military outpost and was frequented by German dignitaries, including Emperor Wilhelm II himself. In March 1917 the retreating German army, on order of General
Erich Ludendorff
Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (; 9 April 1865 – 20 December 1937) was a German general and politician. He achieved fame during World War I (1914–1918) for his central role in the German victories at Battle of Liège, Liège and Battle ...
, destroyed the keep and the 4 towers. It is not known whether this act had some military purpose or was merely an act of wanton destruction. The destruction caused so much public outrage that in April 1917 the ruins were declared "a memorial to barbarity". War reparations were used to clear the towers and to consolidate the walls but the ruins of the keep were left in place.the coucy castle /ref>
One of its lords, Enguerrand VII (1340–1397), is the subject of historian
Barbara Tuchman
Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (; January 30, 1912 – February 6, 1989) was an American historian, journalist and author. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice, for '' The Guns of August'' (1962), a best-selling history of the prelude to and the first mo ...
's study of the fourteenth century ''
A Distant Mirror
''A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century'' is a narrative history book by the American historian Barbara Tuchman, first published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1978.
It won a 1980 U.S. National Book Award in History.Anthony Price's 1982 crime/ espionage novel ''The Old Vengeful''.
Château de Coucy has been listed as a ''
monument historique
() is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, ...
'' by the
French Ministry of Culture
The Ministry of Culture () is the ministry (government department), ministry of the Government of France in charge of List of museums in France, national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and pro ...
since 1862, Château de Coucy and is managed by the ''
Centre des monuments nationaux
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...
''.
Gallery
File:Modèle du Château de Coucy à la Port de Soisson.jpg, Model of the castle as it looked before 1917
File:Chateau coucy ncd ksrolph 2012.jpg, Plate depicts Castle of Coucy in the 13th century, describing architectural features
File:Photo Château-de-Coucy rempart 01.jpg, Rampart of the ''basse-cour''
File:Dessin Château-de-Coucy Rempart 011.jpg, Château of Coucy, watercolor, ca 1820 (
Bibliothèque Nationale
A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a p ...
, Paris)
File:De Coucy Château 1.gif, Etching by
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (; 27 January 181417 September 1879) was a French architect and author, famous for his restoration of the most prominent medieval landmarks in France. His major restoration projects included Notre-Dame de Paris, ...
File:De Coucy Château 2.gif, The ''basse-cour'' and the donjon by
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (; 27 January 181417 September 1879) was a French architect and author, famous for his restoration of the most prominent medieval landmarks in France. His major restoration projects included Notre-Dame de Paris, ...
File:Coucy château (chèvres) 5.jpg, Collapsed tower on the west part of the ''basse-cour''
File:Tour.nord.ouest.Coucy.png, North-west tower of the castle by
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (; 27 January 181417 September 1879) was a French architect and author, famous for his restoration of the most prominent medieval landmarks in France. His major restoration projects included Notre-Dame de Paris, ...
File:Coupe.donjon.Coucy.3.png, Inside of the donjon, by
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (; 27 January 181417 September 1879) was a French architect and author, famous for his restoration of the most prominent medieval landmarks in France. His major restoration projects included Notre-Dame de Paris, ...
File:Château de Coucy - Salle des Preuses.JPG, The ruins of the Great Hall in the Château de Coucy
File:Modell Donjon von Coucy.jpg, model by the International Castle Research Society
See also
*
List of castles in France
This is a list of castles in France, arranged by Regions of France, region and Departments of France, department.
;Notes:
# The French word ''château'' has a wider meaning than the English ''castle'': it includes architectural entities that are p ...
*
List of tallest structures built before the 20th century
List of pre-twentieth century structures by height
See also
*History of the world's tallest buildings
*List of tallest buildings and structures
References
{{Tallest buildings and structures
Lists of tallest structures, Ancient structur ...
References
Bibliography
* Corvisier, Christian. ''Le château de Coucy et l'enceinte de la ville, Itinéraires Picardie.'' Éditions du Patrimoine, Centre des Monuments Nationaux. .
* de Kay, Ormonde (trans.) '' N'Heures Souris Rames: The Coucy Castle Manuscript.'' Angus & Robertson, 1985.
* Laurent, Jean-Marc. ''Le château féodal de Coucy.'' La Vague verte, 2001.
* Leson, Richard. "′Partout la figure du lion′: Thomas of Marle and the Enduring Legacy of the Coucy Donjon Tympanum," Speculum 93.1 (2018):27-71.
* Melleville, Maximilien. ''Histoire de la ville et des sires de Coucy-le-Château.'' Fleury et A. Chevergny, 1848.
* Mesqui, Jean. ''Île-de-France Gothique 2: Les demeures seigneuriales.'' Paris: Picard, 1988; pp. 134–59. .
* Mesqui, Jean. Les programmes résidentiels du château de Coucy du XIIIe au XVIe siècle, p. 207-247, dans Congrès archéologique de France. Aisne méridionale, Société française d'archéologie, Paris, 1994.
* Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène. ''Description du château de Coucy.'' Bance éditeur, 1861.