En un regard
Le château en bref
Brest Castle overlooks the mouth of the Penfeld from a Roman enclosure dating from the 3rd and 4th centuries. It is four metres thick and punctuated by ten circular towers, and its small-scale masonry combines courses of brick and rubble stone. In the Middle Ages and then the Renaissance, the keep and towers such as Madeleine, Paradis, Duchess Anne and Azénor were built, then modernised in the 15th century for artillery. From 1683, Vauban considerably strengthened the fortress, replacing the medieval towers with artillery platforms and increasing the thickness of the curtain walls from four to nineteen metres between certain towers. Miraculously spared by the bombing of 1944, which destroyed 90% of the town, the castle has housed the Musée national de la Marine since 1958, in the Paradis tower, the keep and the Madeleine tower. It offers panoramic views over the roadstead, the Penfeld and the surrounding harbours.