Château de Pirou

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Entrance of the castle Pirou

The Pirou Castle (French Chateau de Pirou ) is far from Lessay on the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy in France. According to legend, the middle of an artificial lake castle is to be a fortification from the 12th century.

Serlon I., one of the twelve sons of Tancred of Hauteville, who is called as conquerors of Apulia and Sicily is said to be the ancestor of the emperor Frederick II and the Lords of Pirou. A knight of Pirou took part in the conquest of England in 1066 and received an estate in Somerset, where his family Stoke- Pero and in the 12th century with the " Stoke Pero Church " the tallest church in Somerset, establishing time even in England founded.

The castle was besieged several times until 1453 in the Hundred Years' War of 1337, partially destroyed and repeatedly repaired. It was last restored in the 18th century, but then used about 100 years until the early 20th century as a farm. The Pirou castle once stood significantly closer to the sea and was intended as a protection for a natural bay. Once reinforced by a plurality of outer ramparts and ditches, of which residues are left, it was hard to take due to its still largely existing obstacles. From the medieval system, the impressive walls of the 12th and 14th centuries remain, which were restored in 1968.