Joan of Arc's House, Orléans, France

Joan of Arc, also known as Jeanne d'Arc, (1412-1431) was a national heroine of France and is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. She asserted that she had visions from God which told her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. Also known as the Maid of Orléans, she (according a legend) liberated city of Orléans from the siege of English in 1429.

Today there is a small museum dedicated to Orléans's favorite mademoiselle. The house is a 20th century reproduction of the half-timbered 15th century house where Joan of Arc stayed during her heroics. The original house was much modified, but then destroyed by bombing in 1940. The first floor has temporary exhibitions, and the second and third floors contain Joan-related models and memorabilia.

References:

Frommers

User Reviews

Keith Cromer (20 months ago)
Awesome displays and information. Really enjoyed my visit. Staff was extremely polite and informative.

Priyadharshni RAMANUJAM (2 years ago)
It's best if we start here first. It's a short story about the history of Joan of Arc. I saw the short film in English but it's available in others too.

Leah Davis (2 years ago)
We were only able to watch the short film on the main floor, which was quite underwhelming. The entire upstairs is roped off, and if we had known that, we would not have wasted our time.

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Photo from Flickr, copyright joiseyshowaa

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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.

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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.

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