Château d'Hardelot

Condette

A fairy-tale silhouette above the dunes of Hardelot-Plage, marrying French turrets with English Victorian charm.

Built on the site of a first wooden fort of the 12th century, the present château was rebuilt in stone around 1220–1231 by Philippe Hurepel de Clermont, son of King Philip Augustus. Besieged several times, it was sold as national property in 1791. Its 19th-century British owners, Sir John Hare and then Henry Guy, gave it its romantic air of an Anglo-Norman manor house; the writer Charles Dickens stayed here regularly. Now a Franco-British cultural centre after a major restoration completed in 2014, it today hosts exhibitions and a reconstructed open-air Elizabethan theatre.

Getting there : Open to the public all year, temporary exhibitions, gardens and a reconstructed Elizabethan theatre, cultural centre of the Entente Cordiale

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

Ambient sound