Chateaux of Grand Est

Château de Sedan

Château de Sedan is a castle situated in Sedan, France, near the river Meuse. Covering an area of 35,000 square metres in its seven floors. Around 1424, Eberhard II von der Mark built a manor with two towers around a church over a period of six years. When Eberhard died in 1440, his son Jean de la Marck began reinforcing the fortress, but it was Robert II de la Marck, the grandson of Jean, who finished the most importan ...
Founded: 1530 | Location: Sedan, France

Château Perrier

The Château Perrier, a historic monument and former home of champagne merchants, provides an exceptional architectural and landscape setting for the 2,000 objects on display and can also be discovered during the visit. Built between 1852 and 1857 by the Sparnacan architect Pierre-Eugène Cordier, Château Perrier is the first example of the Eclectic architectural style in this region. The four facades are inspired by F ...
Founded: 1852 | Location: Épernay, France

Château des ducs de Lorraine

The Château des ducs de Lorraine (Castle of Dukes of Lorraine or Sierck Castle) may have been a Gallo-Roman fort, but the first historical document of the castle date from 1067. However there is probably nothing left of this first castle. The current castle was built by the archbishop of Trier in the 15th century. French army conquered it in the 17th century and since 1661 it became part of the reign of France. The castl ...
Founded: 11th century | Location: Sierck-les-Bains, France

Château de Lunéville

The Château de Lunéville, which had belonged to the Dukes of Lorraine since the thirteenth century, was rebuilt as “the Versailles of Lorraine” by Duke Léopold from 1703 to 1723, from designs of Pierre Bourdict and Nicolas Dorbay and then of the architect Germain Boffrand, whose masterwork it became. It became the home of King Stanisław Leszczyński, last duke of Lorraine and Bar. Lunéville was listed ...
Founded: 1703-1723 | Location: Lunéville, France

Château de Hierges

Château de Hierges is a partially ruined castle. The castle, originally called Château de Jerusalem (Castle of Jerusalem) was built on the site of a castrum whose origins date back to the 9th century, when the seigneurie of Hierges was part of the property of the house of Ardenne. At the time of the Crusades, the fortress of Hierges was given to the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and, in the 12th century, the castl ...
Founded: 9th century AD | Location: Hierges, France

Château d'Étoges

Built at the beginning of the 17th century by the Counts of Anglure, the Château d"Étoges was a staging post for French monarchs whilst on progress to their eastern dominions. Following the French Revolution, Etoges passed into the hands of the wife of Marshal Lannes who played hostess to the Court of the Emperor Napoleon. Today, the family that has owned Etoges for over a century is delighted to continue the Chat ...
Founded: 17th century | Location: Étoges, France

Château de Montcornet

Château de Montcornet was built between the 11th and 12th centuries by the first occupants, the Montcornets. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the fortress passed to Miles de Noyer and then to the Mello family. In 1446, Antoine I de Croy repurchased the castle and rebuilt it almost completely. In 1613, Charles of Gonzaga, who was in the process of building the nearby Charleville, capital of the Principauté d" ...
Founded: 11th century | Location: Montcornet, France

Château d'Haroué

Château d"Haroué was built between 1720 and 1732 by Germain Boffrand during the period when Lorraine was independent of France, for Marc de Beauvau, prince de Craon, viceroy of Tuscany and constable of Lorraine. Surprisingly, the architect had to integrate into his plans the four towers and moat of an older medieval château, a consideration for medieval buildings which was unusual for the classicist period. Le ch ...
Founded: 1720-1723 | Location: Haroué, France

Château de Hattonchâtel

The Château de Hattonchâtel site was fortified in 860 by Hatto, Bishop of Verdun, whose name it bears, on a rocky promontory overlooking the Woëvre flat land. The settlement became the chief stronghold of the bishops and also the location of their mint until 1546. In 1636 the retreating Swedes besieged and burnt most of the town. The medieval castle was destroyed during World War I in 1918. The site was entirely recon ...
Founded: 1923 | Location: Vigneulles-lès-Hattonchâtel, France

Château de Dormans

Château de Dormans estate was established in the 14th century by Jean de Dormans and their family owned the castle until the 16th century. The current appearance dates from the 18th century. The main classical building was built then and two of four corner towers were restored.
Founded: 18th century | Location: Dormans, France

Château de Cons-la-Grandville

The Château de Cons-la-Grandville represents in a single building an architectural synthesis from the Romanesque to the Classical periods. The first castle on the site was built at the end of the 11th century for Dudon de Cons. It was rebuilt before 1248 for Jacques de Cons: a round tower and part of the curtain wall remain from this period. The present castle is built on the remains of the medieval castle, on a ro ...
Founded: 13th century | Location: Cons-la-Grandville, France

Château de Mousson

The Château de Mousson is a ruined castle in the Meurthe-et-Moselle département of France. Until the 13th century, the Château de Mousson was the residence of the Counts of Mousson. On the summit of a hill, it overlooked the valleys of the Seille and the Moselle. It has not resisted the ravages of time, wars and, above all, Cardinal Richelieu. The 17th century was fatal to the fortress at Mousson. A symbol of th ...
Founded: 13th century | Location: Mousson, France

Château de Gerbéviller

The Château de Gerbéviller site has been occupied since at least the 12th century. The present buildings date from the 17th to 19th centuries, and include the chateau, a theater, a chapel, a pavilion and a unique water nymphaeum. The present chateau was built by Camille de Lambertye-Gerbéviller during the reign of Louis XV (1710–1774). It was built sometime before 1750 by Germain Boffrand. The Palatine Chapel, oppo ...
Founded: 18th century | Location: Gerbéviller, France

Château de la Marquetterie

From 1760 until the French Revolution Château de la Marquetterie stately home was the country retreat of famous writer and father of French fantastic fiction Jacques Cazotte. At harvest time, Château La Marquetterie would become the venue for a glittering gathering of the French literati of the 18th Century, Voltaire and André Chénier to name but two. Two centuries later, young calvary officer Pierre-Charles Taitting ...
Founded: 1760 | Location: Pierry, France

Château de Commercy

Château de Commercy was built to the site of 13th century castle on the small hill adjacent to Maas/Meuse river. The current Baroque palace was built by Charles of Lorraine in early 1700s. The castle was later owned also by Stanisław Leszczyński, the former king of Poland. After his death the area was used by cavalry and left to decay until 20th century. Today it is restored.
Founded: 18th century | Location: Commercy, France

Château de Fléville

The Château de Fléville is a castle located in the commune of Fléville-devant-Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle. The current structure was completed in 1533 in the French Renaissance architecture style, but includes a donjon built in 1320. Fléville was one of the few châteaux in Lorraine spared by Cardinal Richelieu (acting on the orders of Louis XIII) after the Thirty Years" War. Fléville"s architecture ...
Founded: 1533 | Location: Fléville-devant-Nancy, France

Château de Pierre-Percée

The Château de Pierre-Percée ("pierced rock castle") in the commune of Pierre-Percée. The site in the early 12th century was in possession of Agnès, countess of Bar and widow of the count of Langenstein. She married Hermann II, Count of Salm and son of Hermann I, King of Germania (Eastern Francia). A well dug (~30 m) into the rock gives the village and the castle their name. The territory, which included the ...
Founded: 12th century | Location: Pierre-Percée, France

Château de Jaulny

The Château de Jaulny site has been known since the 12th century. The fortified U-shaped house dates from the end of 15th or the beginning of the 16th century. An enclosing wall was built in second half of the 17th century. The site was transformed during the 18th century with a home built against the southern wall. Below the western wing are arched cellars dating from the 16th century. In spite of the successive alterat ...
Founded: c. 1500 | Location: Jaulny, France

Château de Thillombois

The Château de Thillombois is a Renaissance château significantly remodeled in the 19th century.  The original château dates from the 12th century. Its size at the time was much larger than the current one that stands today. It was one of the largest medieval domains of the area, owned by a French noble family who also possessed, among others, the Château de Jarny, located in what is now known as Jarny in the d ...
Founded: 1873 | Location: Thillombois, France

Château de L'Échelle

Château de L"Échelle origins are unknown. A first castle at this site was probably founded in the 13th century. In the 15th century a band of Armagnacs, outlawed supporters of Charles, Duke of Orléans, during the Hundred Years" War, settled in L"Echelle Castle and ravaged the area. In 1594, Antoine de La Marche des Contes became Lord of L"Echelle by his marriage to Anne de Maucourt. Antoine, Gover ...
Founded: 13th century | Location: L'Échelle, France

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Historic Site of the week

Monte d'Accoddi

Monte d"Accoddi is a Neolithic archaeological site in northern Sardinia, located in the territory of Sassari. The site consists of a massive raised stone platform thought to have been an altar. It was constructed by the Ozieri culture or earlier, with the oldest parts dated to around 4,000–3,650 BC.

The site was discovered in 1954 in a field owned by the Segni family. No chambers or entrances to the mound have been found, leading to the presumption it was an altar, a temple or a step pyramid. It may have also served an observational function, as its square plan is coordinated with the cardinal points of the compass.

The initial Ozieri structure was abandoned or destroyed around 3000 BC, with traces of fire found in the archeological evidence. Around 2800 BC the remains of the original structure were completely covered with a layered mixture of earth and stone, and large blocks of limestone were then applied to establish a second platform, truncated by a step pyramid (36 m × 29 m, about 10 m in height), accessible by means of a second ramp, 42 m long, built over the older one. This second temple resembles contemporary Mesopotamian ziggurats, and is attributed to the Abealzu-Filigosa culture.

Archeological excavations from the chalcolithic Abealzu-Filigosa layers indicate the Monte d"Accoddi was used for animal sacrifice, with the remains of sheep, cattle, and swine recovered in near equal proportions. It is among the earliest known sacrificial sites in Western Europe.

The site appears to have been abandoned again around 1800 BC, at the onset of the Nuragic age.

The monument was partially reconstructed during the 1980s. It is open to the public and accessible by the old route of SS131 highway, near the hamlet of Ottava. It is 14,9 km from Sassari and 45 km from Alghero. There is no public transportation to the site. The opening times vary throughout the year.