Château de Pierrefonds, France 🏰🇫🇷
The Château de Pierrefonds is a castle in the commune of Pierrefonds, in the Oise department of the Hauts-de-France region, northern France.
It is located on the southeast edge of the forest of Compiègne, northeast of Paris, between the cities of Villers-Cotterêts and Compiègne.
The Château de Pierrefonds includes most of the characteristics of defensive military architecture from the Middle Ages, though it underwent a significant restoration in the 19th century.
A castle was built on this site in the 12th century. Two centuries later, in 1392, King Charles VI turned the County of Valois (of which Pierrefonds was part) into a duchy and gave it to his brother Louis I, Duke of Orléans. From 1393 to his death in 1407, the court architect Jean le Noir rebuilt the castle.
In March 1617, during the early troubled days of Louis XIII's reign, the castle was besieged and taken by troops sent by Cardinal Richelieu, the secretary of state for war. Because of the enormity of the task, its demolition was started but not carried through to the end. The exterior works were razed, the roofs destroyed, and holes in the towers and curtain walls were made.
The castle remained a ruin for more than two centuries. Napoleon I bought it in 1810 for less than 3,000 francs. During the 19th century, with the rediscovery of the Middle Ages' architectural heritage, it became a "romantic ruin."
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (later Napoleon III of France) visited the castle in 1850. As emperor, he asked Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in 1857 to undertake its restoration, which Maurice Ouadou and Juste Lisch continued until 1885.