Battle Abbey

En un regard

Le château en bref

In Battle, a small East Sussex town that grew up around the monastery, the abbey marks the very spot where Harold was defeated on 14 October 1066. William the Conqueror founded it around 1070 in memory of his victory, and tradition places the high altar of the church where the Anglo-Saxon king fell. Owned by the nation since 1976 and entrusted to English Heritage, the site combines the monastic ruins with one of the least altered medieval battlefields in England. The most spectacular monument is the great gatehouse rebuilt from 1338: crenellated, pierced with arrow slits and equipped with a wall-walk, it dominates the high street. Its military appearance, however, was more a statement of prestige and administration than a means of real defence. It is extended by the only surviving section of the 14th-century precinct wall. Behind it survive the tall east range with the monks' dormitory above vaulted rooms, the late 13th-century crypt of the demolished abbey church, and the west range converted into a residence after the Reformation, now occupied by a school. It is an abbey, not a castle, but its fortified gatehouse gives it a castle-like character.