The Château de Caen is a castle in the Norman city of

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Calvados ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

'' (

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

). It has been officially classed as a ''

Monument historique ''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 col ...

'' since 1997.

History

Foundations of William's residence in Caen

The castle was built c. 1060 by William the Conqueror (William of Normandy), who successfully conquered England in 1066. His son

Henry I Henry I may refer to: 876–1366 * Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936) * Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955) * Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018) * Henry I of France (1008–1060) * Henry I the Long, Margrave of the N ...

then built the Saint George's church, a keep (1123) and a large hall for the ducal Court. On Christmas 1182, a royal court celebration for Christmas in the Aula of Caen Castle brought together Henry II and his sons,

Richard the Lionheart Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...

and John Lackland, receiving more than a thousand knights. Caen Castle, along with all of Normandy, was recaptured by the French Crown in 1204. Philip II reinforced the

fortification A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere ...

s. The castle saw several engagements during the

Hundred Years' War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of England and France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French throne between the English House of Plantagen ...

(

1346 Year 1346 ( MCCCXLVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. It was a year in the 14th century, in the midst of a period known in European history as the Late Middle Ages. In Asia that year, the Black Death came to the troop ...

1417 Year 1417 ( MCDXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * June 29 – An English fleet, led by the Earl of Huntingdon, defeats a fleet of Ge ...

, 1450). The keep was pulled down in 1793 during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

, by order of the

National Convention The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year Nation ...

. The castle, which was used as a barracks during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, was bombed in 1944 and seriously damaged. In 1946, Michel de Boüard, an archeologist from Caen, decided to start excavations in the area of the castle to bring to the light medieval traces. The '' Musée des Beaux-Arts'', which was installed in 1967, opened in 1971. Now, you can gain access to a pass and tour the large castle, and visit the university located in the centre of the area.

Structure

The castle was constructed on a hillock and is now in the middle of the city. With an area of 5.5 hectares, it is one of the largest castles in Western Europe. It remained an essential feature of Norman strategy and policy. Today, the castle serves as a museum that houses *the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen (Museum of Fine Arts of Caen) *the Musée de Normandie (Museum of Normandy) along with many periodical exhibitions about arts and history, in the castle residence; *Saint George's church; *the ''Échiquier de Normandie'' (

Exchequer In the civil service of the United Kingdom, His Majesty’s Exchequer, or just the Exchequer, is the accounting process of central government and the government's '' current account'' (i.e., money held from taxation and other government revenu ...

of Normandy), used as a temporary hall of exhibitions, which seated the

Court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in acco ...

of Normandy; * a garden showing plants cultivated in the Middle Ages. The

keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') 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 c ...

, now razed, had a large square section with round towers at each corner. As the castle, it was also surrounded by a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

. The dry moat still provides a circuit for walkers. The top of the

rampart Rampart may refer to: * Rampart (fortification), a defensive wall or bank around a castle, fort or settlement Rampart may also refer to: * "O'er the Ramparts We Watched" is a key line from " The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the ...

s offers a splendid view of Caen. Some parts of the curtain walls were built during the 12th century, but most of them date from the 15th century. The castle has two main entrances: the ''porte sur la ville'' ('gateway to the town') and the ''porte des champs'' ('gateway to the fields'); they are reinforced by two

barbican A barbican (from fro, barbacane) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes. Europe In the Middle A ...

Recent works

Since March 2004, the town of Caen has undergone the restoration of the ramparts, with the financial help of the ERDF (consolidation, opening of arrow slits walled during the 19th century) . 6,000 m³ of earth are being removed, in order to give a better view of the north-west wall of the 12th century. This operation has revealed the cellar of a private house of the 15th century which still has its firehouse, a powder magazine and two walls of a forge of the 14th century. Traces of the stables have also been found. The base of the keep has been cleared, and people are still working on excavations around it.

Bibliography

* Joseph Decaëns and Adrien Dubois (ed.), ''Caen Castle. A ten Centuries Old Fortress within the Town''. Publications du Centre de Recherches Archéologiques et Historiques Médiévales), Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2010,
Publications du CRAHM
* B. Guillot (éd.), Forges médiévales et écurie de la Renaissance au château de Caen. Publications du Centre de Recherches Archéologiques et Historiques Médiévales), Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2015 ()

References

External links