Chateaux of Brittany

Château de Comper

The Château de Comper is medieval castle, which has been rebuilt as a château. The first owner of Comper is supposed have been Salomon, king of Brittany in the 9th century. However the castle has entered in recorded history with the baron Raoul de Gaël-Monfort, who was a companion of William of Normandy during the Battle of Hastings. During the 13th century, Comper was considered one of the strongest cas ...

Founded: 11th century | Location: Concoret, France

Château de Saint-Malo

Château de Saint-Malo was built between 1424 and 1690, first by Jean V, the Duke of Brittany. The Duke Francois II built the first tower in 1475. In 1590 during the Wars of Religion the castle was occupied by local people, who wanted to prevent local governor to gave the city to Protestant king Henry IV. The château was modified in the 17th century according the design of famous fortress architect Sebastian V ...

Founded: 1424 | Location: Saint-Malo, France

Château de Mayenne

Château de Mayenne was originally a wooden castle on a steep rock built in the 8th century AD. It was rebuilt as a stone castle in 920, but burnt down in 1063 during the Breton wars against Wilhelm the Conqueror. The castle was enlarged in the 13th century. In the late Middle Ages Mayenne castle was no longer used as a a residence, but it was a garrison and magazine. English army occupied it twice during the Hundred ...

Founded: 778 AD | Location: Mayenne, France

Château de Fougères

The Château de Fougères is an impressive castle with curtain wall and 13 towers. It had three different enclosures, first for defensive purposes, second for day to day usages in peacetime and for safety of the surrounding populations in times of siege, the last enclosure was where the keep was situated. The first wooden fort was built by the House of Amboise in the 11th century. It was destroyed in 1166 after it was be ...

Founded: c. 1167 | Location: Fougères, France

Château de Châteaulin

Château de Châteaulin was built in the 10th century by Earl of Cornouaille. In 1373 it was burned down by English army. The castle was never built again and today only ruins remain.

Founded: 10th century | Location: Châteaulin, France

Château de Vitré

The first castle in Vitré was built of wood on a feudal motte around the year 1000 on the Sainte-Croix hill. The castle was burned down on several occasions, and eventually was bequeathed to the Benedictine monks of Marmoutier Abbey. The first stone castle was built by the baron Robert I of Vitré at the end of the 11th century. The defensive site chosen, a rocky promontory, dominated the valley of the Vilai ...

Founded: c. 1090 | Location: Vitré, France

Château de Pontivy

According to legend, Pontivy was founded in 685 AD by an English monk called Ivy who built a wooden bridge across the Blavet, giving the town its name – Pont d’Ivy. The town really began to develop in the 12th century when Viscount Rohan settled there and in the 14th century it became the political and administrative capital of the viscounty. The main site in Pontivy is its château, which overlooks the ...

Founded: 1485 | Location: Pontivy, France

Château de Quintin

Château de Quintin was mentioned as 'castellum novum' in 1202 and it was probably a fortified manor built in the late 1100s by Alain de Penthièvre. Geoffroy I Boterel built the first actual castle in the middle 1200s. it consisted of a moat, four gates, curtain walls and towers. The castle was badly damaged in the Wars of Religion (1590s). The next castle was built as a living residence in 1643 and ...

Founded: 1643 | Location: Quintin, France

Château de Dinan

The Château de Dinan consists of a keep and gate, which are part of the 2,600 metres of medieval ramparts which still surround the old town. The keep is called Donjon de la duchesse Anne (Keep of the Duchess Anne), and stands 34m high near the Saint Louis gate. John V, Duke of Brittany built the keep in 1382-1383. The keep is formed by a union of two tall circular towers; a moat and drawbridge divides the keep from ...

Founded: 1382-1383 | Location: Dinan, France

Château de Clisson

Within then independent Brittany, Château de Clisson, situated at a crossroads for Anjou and Poitou, was one of the great fortified places on the frontiers of the Duchy of Brittany. The first Lords of Clisson occupied the site from the 11th century. They are mentioned for the first time in 1040. Clisson was then the seat of a powerful châtellenie covering 23 parishes. Most of the present castle was built in the 13th ce ...

Founded: 11th century | Location: Clisson, France

Château de Brest

The Château de Brest is one of the largest roadsteads (sheltered area outside a harbor) in the world. From the Roman castellum to Vauban"s citadel, the site has over 1700 years of history, holding right up to the present day its original role as a military fortress and a strategic location of the highest importance. It is thus the oldest castle in the world still in use. The structure"s heterogeneous archi ...

Founded: 200 AD | Location: Brest, France

Château de Châteaugiron

Châteaugiron developed around its château from the 13th century onwards, becoming more prosperous towards the end of the Middle Ages as the canvas sail industry expanded. The town’s unique historic town centre is very well-preserved and features significant remains of the medieval fortress, renovated between 1450 and 1470 by Jean de Derval. Of the six original towers, four are still standing: the 38 metr ...

Founded: 13th century | Location: Châteaugiron, France

Château de Josselin

Château de Josselin was built in the 11th century and rebuilt at various times since. Guéthénoc, vicomte of Porhoët, Rohan and Guéméné, began to build the first castle on the site around the year 1008, choosing a rocky promontory overlooking the valley of the Oust. The site chosen for the castle was excellent from both the commercial and the military points of view, and since the 9th century there had also existed ...

Founded: 11th century | Location: Josselin, France

Château de Pont-L'Abbé

Château de Pont-L'Abbé spans from the 14th to 18th centuries. The 'wedding' room decorated with Mathurin Méheut pieces of art (Sainte-Marine port), Henri Sollier and Jacques Godin. The structure now serves as the town hall and houses the Bigouden Museum, with its fine collection of costumes and Bigouden head-dresses.

Founded: 1385 | Location: Pont-l'Abbé, France

Château de Combourg

The original castle on the site of current Château de Combourg was built around 1025 by Archbishop Guinguené, who gave it to his illegitimate brother Riwallon. Major alterations were made between the 15th and 19th centuries. The castle consists of four large, powerful buildings of dressed granite, with crenellations and machicolations, enclosing a rectangular courtyard. In each corner of this massive fortress is a round ...

Founded: 1025 | Location: Combourg, France

Château de Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier

The ruins of the castle of Saint-Aubin-of-Cormier point out a significant event of Breton history. Affected by the catch of Saint-Aubin, François II, Duke of Brittany, an army of 11000 men constitutes to take again the places. During the famous battle of July 28, 1488, the French troops embank their adversaries. This event announces the end of independence of Brittany which will concretize itself with the marriage ...

Founded: 13th century | Location: Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier, France

Château de Tonquédec

The Château de Tonquédec is one of the most visited monuments in the département of the Côtes d'Armor. The castle ruins with its several towers and a closed curtain wall is one of the most impressive French medieval sites. From the height of a rocky cliff it dominates the valley of the Léguer. It is a genuine vestige of feudal Brittany. The present castle was built in the 15th century, on the site of an earlier 12th- ...

Founded: 1406 | Location: Tonquédec, France

Château de Suscinio

The Château de Suscinio was built in the late Middle Ages as the residence of the Dukes of Brittany. The spectacular site comprises the moated castle, a ruined chapel, a dovecote, and a few ruined outbuildings. Designed to be a place of leisure, between the seaside and a forest full of game for hunting, the castle"s first logis seigneurial (seigniorial house) dates from the beginning of the 13th century. The c ...

Founded: 14th century | Location: Sarzeau, France

Château du Guildo

Château du Guildo dates from the 11th century, when there was a fortified manor, probably made of wood. The stone castle was built in the 13th century in three phases. It was destroyed a century later and the new castle construction began in the late 1300s. Later it was restored as a living residence, but badly damaged in the late 1400s during the French-Breton War. The castle took part also to the Wars of Religion, ...

Founded: 13th century | Location: Saint-Jacut-de-la-Mer, France

Château de Trécesson

The imposing reddish schist walls of Château de Trécesson are reflected in the waters of the lake which surrounds it. The front gate is reached by a bridge which spans the moat. The entry is guarded by an imposing gatehouse flanked by two narrow towers on corbelling, joined together by an old gallery with machicolations. On the right, a long almost windowless frontage, covered with a steep slate roof, ends in ...

Founded: 14th century | Location: Trécesson, France