Château de Montfaucon: A Ruined Medieval Fortress in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page10 sections
History
Château de Montfaucon is a ruined medieval fortress in France, near Besançon in the former Franche-Comté, historically part of the County of Burgundy. Construction began in the eleventh century, when Conon de Montfaucon, the first lord of Montfaucon, established a wooden fortress on the summit of a rocky spur. He held the site as a vassal of Renaud I, Count of Burgundy, and Hugues I de Salins, the Archbishop of Besançon and a prince of the Holy Roman Empire.
From wooden stronghold to stone castle
At the end of the thirteenth century, Amédée III de Montfaucon replaced the earlier stronghold with a stone castle at the present site. A settlement grew beside it, forming a fortified community associated with the castle. Its church stood there by 1311, and its surviving remains still belong to the archaeological character of the site.
During the Middle Ages, the Montfaucon family ranked among the powerful feudal noble families of the County of Burgundy and the County of Montbéliard. From the twelfth century, beginning with Amédée II de Montfaucon, the family entered the lineage of the Counts of Montbéliard. In the fifteenth century, the castle passed by inheritance to the Chalon-Arlay family, the Princes of Orange, who retained it until the French Revolution.
Wars, abandonment, and preservation
In 1477, Château de Montfaucon was among the few fortresses in the County of Burgundy to survive the campaign of Louis XI, king of France from 1461 to 1483. His army intervened after the death of Charles the Bold, the last Valois duke of Burgundy, during France’s attempt to annex the Burgundian state.
The castle was definitively abandoned after the Ten Years’ War, fought from 1634 to 1644 as the Franche-Comté phase of the wider Thirty Years’ War. Under Richelieu, the chief minister of Louis XIII, France fought the Spanish Habsburgs, who controlled the County of Burgundy, in an effort to reconquer the region.
Château de Montfaucon has been protected as a French historic monument since 7 December 1976. The commune purchased the ruins in 1984 and later began a major, long-term restoration project intended to support tourism. The commune now owns the site, which remains in ruins.
Remains
The fortress and its associated settlement occupy a rocky ridge about 300 metres long and between 30 and 100 metres wide. The steep slopes formed a natural defensive barrier, strengthened by three successive enclosures. The ridge rises above and overlooks the Doubs valley, while the northern part contained the castral settlement, or settlement that developed beside a castle.
Fortified settlement and outer defences
Castral settlement
The northern ridge held the fortified settlement and its church, built in 1311. The church remains survive within the wider group of ruins and help define the settlement associated with the castle.
Lower bailey
The lower bailey, an outer or lower fortified area, lay at the eastern foot of the castle. It included a chapel and caves, adding religious and practical spaces to the defences around the principal stronghold.
Principal castle
The main castle stood on a castle mound, a raised earthwork or artificial hill, measuring about 100 metres in length and 30 metres in width. A curtain wall, or defensive enclosing wall, surrounded it and formed the main boundary of the principal fortress.
Northern entrance defences
A polygonal tower, built with several angled sides rather than a circular plan, reinforced the northern part of the curtain wall and defended the entrance.
Southern towers
The southern defences consisted of a five-level hexagonal keep and a square tower. The keep served as the principal fortified tower of the castle, while the square tower formed another part of the southern defensive line. Together with the curtain wall and the successive enclosures, these structures occupied the ridge above the Doubs valley.
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