En un regard
Le château en bref
Ostrevant Tower dominates Bouchain, in the Nord department, in the heart of the former Ostrevant region between the Scheldt and the Sensée. This large rectangular keep, measuring roughly 19 by 16 metres, was built in the second half of the 12th century by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut for his son Baldwin V, in white stone from Avesnes-le-Sec. A seigniorial residence and watch post, it was converted after 1530, under Charles V, into an artillery battery and lowered to about fifteen metres. In the 18th century it received brick-vaulted rooms on three levels, and it was then covered with reinforced concrete in 1939. In May 1940, soldiers of the 45th Infantry Regiment held out there for eight days. Listed as a monument historique in 1981, it has housed a museum run by a local association since 1973.