Vincennes - Château de Vincennes

The history of the Château de Vincennes can be traced in its architecture, which shows a combination of a medieval fortified castle with a Baroque palace. The walls of the castle, with their nine towers and the magnificent keep, enclose a spacious courtyard with four 17th century pavilions.

The story of Vincennes begins in the 11th century, when the French crown acquired the forest of Vincennes, which belonged to the abbey of Saint-Maur.

Thereafter the Bois de Vincennes belonged to the French kings, who built a hunting lodge here in the 12th/13th century. In the 14th century this was enlarged into a fortified castle, and in the 15th century it became the favorite residence of the royal family. After the defeat of the Fronde in 1652 the castle became a prison for opponents of the absolutist monarchy, including the Prince de Condé, the Prince de Conti and Cardinal de Retz; in the 18th century state prisoners included Diderot, Mirabeau and the Marquis de Sade, who spent some years of his life in prison here.

In the 17th century Cardinal Mazarin commissioned Le Vau to build two symmetrical ranges of rooms, the Pavillon du Roi and the Pavillon de la Reine, in which the 22 year old Louis XIV and his bride Maria Theresa of Austria spent their honeymoon in 1661. In the early 18th century a porcelain manufactory was installed in the Tour du Diable (Devil's Tower) on the east side of the château; later in the century, however (1759), this was transferred to Sèvres. After being used by Napoleon I as an arsenal the château was renovated under Napoleon III by Viollet-le- Duc. Further extensive restoration was required after 1944 to make good the damage caused by German forces during their retreat.