Senonches Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Senonches Castle (Eure-et-Loir) is mentioned in a charter from the early twelfth century, when Hugues II, lord of Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais, confirmed monastic possessions on the site; he rebuilt the fortress around 1140 on the ruins of an earlier building, surrounding it with earthworks. Having passed to the counts of Alençon after the extinction of the barony of Thymerais at the end of the thirteenth century, it belonged to the Gonzaga-Mantua family from 1563 to 1654, then to the families of Condé and Bourbon, before Louis XV gave it in 1770 to his brother, the future Louis XVIII. Becoming national property during the Revolution, it was sold in 1831 to ironmasters and later given to the commune. The gatehouse tower, listed as a monument historique in 1923, together with remains of the ramparts and curtain walls, still survives; the main residential block, which served both as the seigneurial residence and as a court of justice, adjoined a prison with vaulted cells. Since 1998, the château-museum "Forêt d'Histoires", restored from 2005, has housed an interpretation centre devoted to the forest and to humankind.