Château de Passy-en-Valois

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château de Passy-en-Valois is a former medieval fortress built in the 12th–13th centuries on a rectangular plan measuring about 80 metres per side, in the Valois. Lacking a central keep, the complex comprised four large corner towers about 20 metres in diameter, supplemented by intermediate towers about 10 metres in diameter along the curtain walls, as well as an entrance flanked by two towers with diamond-point rustication. The site was protected by moats about 15 metres wide and 6 to 7 metres deep, crossed by a three-arched drawbridge. After the Battle of Bouvines (1214), King Philip Augustus granted the château to his chamberlain Pierre Tristan; the estate then passed by marriage to the Châtillon family. The moats were filled in during the 1920s. The fortress was largely destroyed during the First World War; its remains were later converted into a farm by Jacques Ferté.