Château de Caen

The Château de Caen stands at the heart of the city on an artificial promontory above the Odon valley, enclosing the largest medieval castle area in France at over two hectares. Construction began around 1060 under William the Conqueror, then Duke of Normandy, who used the fortress as his principal seat of ducal administration before the Conquest of England in 1066. The castle was substantially expanded by his son Henry I in the early 12th century, when the great hall (aula ducis) was raised; fragments survive on the north-east side of the enclosure. The rectangular donjon, now reduced to lower courses, dates from this same period. Philip II of France seized the castle in 1204 following the absorption of Normandy into the French crown and continued fortifying the walls with new round towers. The English recaptured Caen in 1417 during Henry V's Normandy campaign and held it until 1450. The circuit of medieval walls, punctuated by towers and pierced by two main gateways — the Porte Saint-Pierre and the Porte des Champs — is almost entirely intact and can be walked at any time for free. Within the enclosure stand two important institutions: the Musée de Normandie, housed in the 17th-century governor's residence, which displays archaeology from Neolithic times through the Viking settlement to the medieval duchy; and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, opened in 1971 in a purpose-built modernist structure, holding a collection of 16th–17th-century Italian, Flemish, and French paintings. The Chapelle Saint-Georges, a small Romanesque structure within the enclosure, dates from the 12th century. During the Bombing of Caen in July 1944 the castle enclosure served as a civilian refuge; the walls withstood the bombardment while much of the surrounding city was destroyed. Restoration of the ramparts has been ongoing since the 1970s, with the most recent campaign completed in 2018 consolidating the eastern towers.