Château on the Hill | Gavray Sur Sienne - Exploring France
Gavray is an odd one for us, it's somewhere we have been tons of times as they have a great Saturday market and it's also where out vets are, so we are very familiar with the place. It wasn't until one day we were getting a few bits from the market we noticed a sign for the château. Château we both thought as we looked at each other in surprise, we never remember seeing a château here. We didn't have enough time that day to explore but we thought we would have a look on google to see what it was all about and maybe go and visit another day.
Ariel view of the château and paths around the grounds
A quick google, and we were informed there was a lovely château up on the hill, ahh that's what all the flags are about up there. It was defiantly somewhere that looked like it would be worth a walk around. A few days later, we drove the 10 kilometres or so to Gavray and parked outside their community centre. There was parking for the château but we wanted to have a wonder around town too. We made way for the château high up on the hill. We walked through a part of town we didn't know existed, it is a small parkland with areas to play boules, fish and also to tie up horses whilst you visited the local village. There were wooden walkways and paths and parts of the park that were left to go wild for nature, it was a beautiful place and we soon stumbled upon a part of the town we knew. The river in Gavray is at the end of the high street, and unless you were in the car or heading to this end of town for a specific reason, I think it would be missed. The signs to the château are mainly for road users so we had a quick look on our maps to find out way up, up and up the hill again. There was a pathway that looked as though it was someones back garden.
We decided to take this path which was extremely steep and had steps some of the way. It was so steep, we were crawling on our hands and knees some of the way. We were half way up when we wondered if this was in fact the right way to go. Luckily it was! After about 10 minutes and what felt like miles of climbing, we arrived to the main path of the château. It turns out, although this path is more than okay to take, it is not the official path to the château. There is purposeful parking and space for disabled badge holders, but never mind.
Gavray is a small commune in Manche, right along the river Sienne and has been of great strategic importance in battles over the centuries. When you walk through this town, there is little evidence of the history apart from the small house lined roads going through its centre. The château is a former fortified castle from the 11th century and it is now only ruins which remain. The southern part of the castle was to protect all of the southern Cotentin peninsular.
On the death of William the conqueror, the castle was entrusted to his son, Henri I, who would later become King of England. It has a very similar history to that of the castle in Regnéville, it was part of the 100 years war and it was during this time, there was a keep, Barbican and a draw bridge installed. It was one of the favourite residences of Charles II of Navarre which is part of modern day Spain.
There were three phases of this castle, the first most inner was the residences of the King and his men, the next was the outer wall of his castle and the furthest out was the fortifications. There was no running water up here, to gather water, they would have had to have trudged up and down the hill to the river at the bottom to gather water, not a job for the faint hearted! The castle and its defences were defended by one main watch tower which would have permanently had someone inside it to keep watch for invaders. This building was 15 metres across, with walls of 4 metres thick and it was about 12 metres tall. It must have taken quite a bit of construction back in the day.
What the château would have looked like 700+ years ago
This is a big site with a long history and it has been rebuilt and reconstructed a lot over the years. Historians think during the 17th and 18th centuries, it was excavated and rebuilt again to match what the original may have looked like. It doesn't seem like it was very well documented and historians don't actually know what happened. It wasn't until way into the 20th century, there was another project started to try and uncover the castle ruins and make it a place where people could come and learn about the history of Gavray which was actually very important.
As is a lot of places we visit, this one was free to visit, free to park and there were information boards all around telling you details about specific parts of the castle. There were also QR codes on the signs so you could scan the QR code and get a translation in either English or German for the information, very handy!
View from the top over the town of Gavray
Social Media & Website
Buy us a coffee/beer - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/seastheday1
YouTube - youtube.com/channel/UCafklL7k4CrfWgiA9H3RawQ/featured
Website (Sailing) - seasthedaysailing.wixsite.com/home
Instagram - @seasthedayzelande
Facebook - @seasthedayalbatros
Photography website - shamrockphotography0.wixsite.com/home
Photography Instagram - @shamrock___photography
Photography Facebook - @ShamrockPhotographyFR
Patreon - patreon.com/seastheday
Support us - gofund.me/addc179f
Comments
Post a Comment