Chateaux of Hauts-de-France
Château de Liettres
Château de Liettres was probably built some years before 1479 by Sir Simon de Luxembourg, provost of the church of Saint-Omer. In that year it was burned by the progressing army of Maximilian I of Austria. In 1542 Liettres Castle was again burned and partly destroyed by the troops of the Duke of Vendome. Shortly thereafter the castle was bought by Jean de Zomberghe after which it remained in the hands of his descendants ...Château de Couin
Château de Couin was built between 1745 and 1749 by the Landas family. It was designed by the architect d"Huez. The next owner, the Louvencourt family, continued the work in the 19th century. During the First World War the castle was a headquarters of British army medical care. Today Château de Couin is a hotel.Château de Goeulzin
Château de Goeulzin dates originally from the late 1200s. It was severely damaged in 1521 and 1582 in the wars. The reconstruction took place in 1576 and it was moved as a mansion in the early 1600s. The chateau was looted and destroyed by German troops in the World War I. It has been in ruins since theFeatured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings
Historic Site of the week
Broch of Gurness
The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village. Settlement here began sometime between 500 and 200 BC. At the centre of the settlement is a stone tower or broch, which once probably reached a height of around 10 metres. Its interior is divided into sections by upright slabs. The tower features two skins of drystone walls, with stone-floored galleries in between. These are accessed by steps. Stone ledges suggest that there was once an upper storey with a timber floor. The roof would have been thatched, surrounded by a wall walk linked by stairs to the ground floor. The broch features two hearths and a subterranean stone cistern with steps leading down into it. It is thought to have some religious significance, relating to an Iron Age cult of the underground.
The remains of the central tower are up to 3.6 metres high, and the stone walls are up to 4.1 metres thick. The tower was likely inhabited by the principal family or clan of the area but also served as a last resort for the village in case of an attack.
The broch continued to be inhabited while it began to collapse and the original structures were altered. The cistern was filled in and the interior was repartitioned. The ruin visible today reflects this secondary phase of the broch's use.
The site is surrounded by three ditches cut out of the rock with stone ramparts, encircling an area of around 45 metres diameter. The remains of numerous small stone dwellings with small yards and sheds can be found between the inner ditch and the tower. These were built after the tower, but were a part of the settlement's initial conception. A 'main street' connects the outer entrance to the broch. The settlement is the best-preserved of all broch villages.
Pieces of a Roman amphora dating to before 60 AD were found here, lending weight to the record that a 'King of Orkney' submitted to Emperor Claudius at Colchester in 43 AD.
At some point after 100 AD the broch was abandoned and the ditches filled in. It is thought that settlement at the broch continued into the 5th century AD, the period known as Pictish times. By that time the broch was not used anymore and some of its stones were reused to build smaller dwellings on top of the earlier buildings. Until about the 8th century, the site was just a single farmstead.
In the 9th century, a Norse woman was buried at the site in a stone-lined grave with two bronze brooches and a sickle and knife made from iron. Other finds suggest that Norse men were buried here too.