Château de Falaise

The castle of Falaise (French Château Guillaume- le- Conquérant ) is located on a located in the southwest of Falaise Outcrop in the Calvados region of Basse -Normandie region.

The plant, as one sees today is the result of three construction phases, in which the three residential towers ( Donjon ) have been built:

• The first tower was used both to defend and to govern or Reside of the king - duke and his family. The rectangular floor plan is typical of the Anglo-Norman construction (see White Tower in London). That around 1120 built Donjon consists of a large hall of public life (Aula ), a private life dedicated chamber ( camera), as well as a chapel ( capella) together, all of which were from defense technical reasons the first floor and not the ground floor. There sure were rooms where the kitchen was set up and where food supplies, but also weapons were stored. Builder of this first partial area of ​​the castle was Henry I Beauclerc, fourth son of William the Conqueror. Since this is the largest of the three residential towers, he is called grand donjon.
• In order to increase the living space, a second Tower of Henry II Plantagenet was commissioned. This extension was also applied rectangular, but is smaller in its dimensions as the grand donjon. He is therefore called petit donjon.
• The third tower was added as a result of his military conquests in the Duchy of Normandy by the French king Philippe Auguste in the early 13th century. The circular layout for better defense tower was built according to the plans of the military engineers of the French king. You can also talk about Talbot Tower.

The castle was abandoned in the 17th century, was placed in 1840 under monument protection. The architect Robert Ruprich, a pupil of Eugène Viollet -le- Duc, took first restoration work to save the Donjons from decay. In the encirclement battle of Falaise in 1944, the medieval structure was only slightly damaged.

Between 1987 and 1997 the towers of Bruno Decaris, chief architect of the monument protection in Calvados, were restored. In particular, the realized in a modern way restore the input range of grand donjon was highly controversial because Decaris steel and reinforced concrete used. But the use of such materials has the visitors also points to the relevance of restoration.