Tour de Beaurevoir

Beaurevoir

Beaurevoir was the residence of the counts of Luxembourg-Ligny. It was here that Jean II of Luxembourg, to whom belonged the men who had taken Joan outside Compiègne on 23 May 1430, shut her up after moving her from Margny to Clairoix and to Beaulieu-les-Fontaines. She stayed there some four months, treated with a certain consideration by the ladies of the household, who offered her a woman's dress. In the autumn, learning that the English were negotiating to buy her and that Compiègne was threatened with the sword, she jumped from the top of the tower into the ditch. At her trial she said that Saint Catherine had forbidden it and that she had done it all the same; she was picked up unconscious, and took several days to recover. Taken on to Arras, she was sold to the English on 21 November 1430 for ten thousand livres tournois. Of the castle dismantled in 1674 there remain only a cylindrical keep on its motte, a few stretches of the residential range and the ditches, vast. Standing at the foot of the tower, you take in at a glance the height of the jump.

Wikipédia — Château de Beaurevoir ↗

Getting there : At Beaurevoir, between Saint-Quentin and Le Cateau-Cambrésis, by the D 76 or the A 26 exit. The tower stands on the edge of the village, to the south-west, on ground surrounded by ditches; it is clearly visible from the path that runs alongside the site. Enquire at the town hall about visits to the interior, which are not continuous.

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

Ambient sound