Château de Dourdan

Dourdan

Completed around 1222 by Philip Augustus, the château de Dourdan is one of the very few 13th-century fortresses in Île-de-France to have kept the essentials of its structures: a curtain wall flanked by towers, spectacular moats and a Philippian keep. The southern lock of the royal domain, it protected the grain road from the Beauce. The list of its masters sums up the history of France: Louis VIII, then Saint Louis, who gave it to his mother Blanche of Castile; the house of Évreux; and finally Jean de Berry, who embellished it to the point of having it appear, idealised, in the illuminations of the "Très Riches Heures" — the château features in the month of April of the most famous manuscript of the Middle Ages. The Hundred Years' War brought it repeated sieges and assaults, and in 1591, during the wars of the League, it lost its roofs and its crowning parapets. Its second life was darker: turned into a prison by Philippe d'Orléans from 1672, it held state prisoners, common-law convicts and then departmental detainees for nearly two centuries, until 1852. Local tradition peoples its dungeons with a thousand tales of captives. Saved by the antiquary Amédée Guénée and then restored with passion by Joseph Guyot, who created romantic gardens there, it has belonged to the town since the 1960s and houses its museum. From the wall-walk, the eye still takes in the walled town willed by Philip Augustus.

Getting there : Place du Général-de-Gaulle, in the very centre of Dourdan; Dourdan RER C station a few minutes' walk away; château-museum open to visitors. Approximate coordinates placed on the enclosure (town: 48.5277, 2.0111 according to latitude.to).

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

Ambient sound