La Ferté-Milon () is a commune in the

Aisne Aisne ( , ; ; ) is a French departments of France, department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. It is named after the river Aisne (river), Aisne. In 2020, it had a population of 529,374. Geography The department borders No ...

department in

Hauts-de-France Hauts-de-France (; ; ), also referred to in English as Upper France, is the northernmost region of France, created by the territorial reform of French regions in 2014, from a merger of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy. Its prefecture is Lille. ...

, northern France.

Geography

La Ferté-Milon is situated on the river

Ourcq The Ourcq (, ''Urc'' in 855) is an river in France, a right tributary of the Marne (river), Marne. Its source is near the village Ronchères, Aisne, Ronchères, and its course crosses the departments of France, departments of Aisne, Oise, and ...

, 27 km southwest of

Soissons Soissons () is a commune in the northern French department of Aisne, in the region of Hauts-de-France. Located on the river Aisne, about northeast of Paris, it is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital ...

and 30 km northeast of

Meaux Meaux () is a Communes of France, commune on the river Marne (river), Marne in the Seine-et-Marne Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in the Functional area (France), metropolitan area of Paris, Franc ...

. La Ferté-Milon station has rail connections to Meaux and Paris.

Sights

In La Ferté-Milon stand the ruins of an unfinished castle, whose façade was 200 m long and 38 m high. The singular form of the tower walls was probably designed to resist cannons and protect the gate. The façade is preceded by a moat. On the right is a square tower of which two bare walls remain. The top of the ramparts is adorned with

machicolation In architecture, a machicolation () is an opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement through which defenders could target attackers who had reached the base of the defensive wall. A smaller related structure that only protects key ...

. Access to the town was protected by a former gate of which two towers remain. Behind the ramparts, two 160 mm cannons from 1909 sit facing towards the valley. One is annotated in Russian with the number 5085.

Population

Personalities

The dramatist

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ; ; 22 December 1639 – 21 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western tr ...

(1639–1699) was born in La Ferté-Milon. He was one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France. A statue of Racine as a child is located at the bottom of the paved ''Ruelle des rats''. Nearby is a slate-roofed church with a square belfry with four turrets in each corner, one of which serves as a staircase.

References

External links