Château de Pierre II: A Medieval Fortified Castle in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Brittany
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page11 sections
History
Château de Pierre II is a former medieval fortified castle in Guingamp, France, developed under Breton ducal rule from an eleventh-century earthwork into a later medieval stone fortress. The site’s successive forms reflect changes in the defence of the town, from the original motte to a polygonal enclosure and finally the square castle associated with Pierre II of Brittany, known as “the Simple.”
From motte to polygonal fortification
The earliest stronghold originated at the beginning of the eleventh century. Its raised earthwork, known as the Count’s Motte, formed the first major defensive phase of the site. A castral motte was a mound designed to support a fortified residence or tower, and the original earthwork measured approximately 30 metres in diameter.
During the twelfth century, the Plantagenets, a powerful medieval ruling dynasty whose territories included parts of France and England, ordered the destruction of the earlier motte during the recovery of the Duchy of Brittany. It was replaced by a polygonal stone fortification. This enclosure, oriented toward the south, was substantially modified between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries.
The polygonal fortification remained in place until the end of the fourteenth century, when Duke John V of Brittany ordered its destruction. A new medieval castle was then erected on the orders of Pierre II of Brittany. In the fifteenth century, this later fortress took shape on a square plan, creating the principal form associated with the site today.
The fifteenth-century defensive circuit
In 1446, Jean de Beuves constructed Guingamp’s town ramparts for Pierre II. The circuit was completed in 1456 and included six towers, access gates at Quincy, Locmikaël, Tréguier, Montbareil, and Porte de Rennes, as well as posterns at Quincy and Saint-Jacques. A postern was a smaller secondary gate, while the Saint-Jacques postern served as a barbican defending the eastern approach to the town.
The castle formed part of this broader defensive landscape, which included the ramparts and the town’s gateways. Its military history changed sharply in 1626, when Louis XIII ordered its dismantling as retaliation for the revolt of César de Vendôme, then lord of Guingamp, in the context of the Chalais conspiracy. Louis XIII, king of France from 1610 to 1643, used royal authority against the rebellion by ordering the fortress to be taken apart.
School use and archaeological investigation
After its military history, the site was occupied by a primary school until the twentieth century. A large central building was constructed between 1834 and 1840 for the Sisters of Wisdom, and later buildings also incorporated remnants of a transferred girls’ school. The nursery and primary school moved elsewhere during the 1990s, and the castle was cleared in 2004, including the removal of these later structures and other modern buildings.
Archaeological assessments in 2002 and preventive excavations in 2005 by the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research revealed evidence of Guingamp’s history and of the castle’s successive phases. The surviving remains had already been listed as a historic monument in France in 1926.
Presentation and conservation
A 2013 enhancement project by the Devernay architectural practice sought to make the castle’s development legible through its physical presentation. The work used paths, the removal of modern buildings known as the Croix d’Or, and wooden palisades to mark the presumed limits and missing portions of the original castle.
The restoration program proceeded in four phases. The first, begun in the first half of 2014, involved filling, grading, grassing, and presenting the motte, polygonal enclosure, and later castle as three successive stages. It also secured the site with a wooden reconstruction of the missing northern rampart and north tower. Work begun in late February 2015 cleaned the rampart faces, consolidated the east tower after its roof collapsed, repaired masonry joints, and added a guardrail to the rampart. Later phases installed grating walkways and guardrails on the west, south, and north towers, while work in October 2016 created a planted glacis and refurbished the parking area below the castle at Petit Vally. A glacis is a sloped earthwork that improves the defensive profile of a fortification.
Remains
Successive defensive forms
The castle stands on a height overlooking the Trieux valley and the Trieux River. Its presentation separates the three principal stages of development: the approximately 30-metre-wide motte, the south-oriented polygonal enclosure, and the later square fortress. The fifteenth-century castle measured 36 metres on each side and originally included a northern rampart and north tower whose form is now represented visually by a wooden palisade made from overlapping boards.
Towers and curtain walls
Surviving towers
Three towers remain visible today. The east, south, and west towers each measure 13.50 metres in diameter and reach approximately 20 metres in height. They survive with sections of the curtain wall, including the southern and southwestern curtain areas. The west tower also retains its escarp, a sloping defensive face.
Ramparts and access areas
A surviving section of rampart lies between the castle and the Toulquéllénic gate. Conservation work cleaned the masonry faces, repaired the joints, and strengthened the weakened east tower. Guardrails and grating walkways were added to the towers and ramparts, while a planted earth glacis covered with grass was formed below the castle.
Associated town defences
The wider defensive remains include portions of the Fontaine and Saint-Sauveur towers, the east and west sides of the Traou-Zach tower, and sections of the surrounding town ramparts. Together with the castle’s surviving walls and towers, these elements preserve parts of the defensive system that shaped Guingamp in the fifteenth century.
