Forteresse médiévale de Crozant

Crozant

At the northern tip of the Creuse, a granite spur juts out between two rivers, the Creuse and the Sédelle. On this prow of stone, the counts of La Marche raised one of the fortresses reputed among the most powerful in France in the Middle Ages: Crozant, at stake in the struggles between Lusignans, Capetians and Plantagenets, locked the frontier between the kingdom and English Aquitaine. Centuries of sieges, abandonment and collapse have reduced the stronghold to a chaos of gutted towers and stretches of curtain wall — and it is precisely this grandiose ruin, standing above the waters, that made the literary and pictorial fortune of the place. George Sand, who stayed at nearby Gargilesse, idealised Crozant in her novels; Chopin passed this way; then came the painters. Armand Guillaumin settled here for years on end, and Claude Monet painted here in 1889 his series of the gorges of the Creuse: the "Valley of the Painters" was born, an open-air school through which passed dozens of artists fascinated by the russet heather, the dark waters and the ruins. Today the fortress, protected both as a monument historique (historic monument) and as a listed site, may be visited all year round; from the top of the spur, the eye plunges down to the confluence and the hills that Monet found so hard to capture, so quickly does the light change there. A place where military history and the history of art overlap exactly.

Getting there : Village of Crozant, at the tip of the Creuse; tickets on site (€4 adults, €3 children), site open all year round. Sloping paths, good footwear advised. Coordinates given for the fortress.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound