Château de Pierrefonds

Louis d'Orléans, brother of King Charles VI of France, built the original castle between 1393 and 1407 as a symbol of his power in the Valois family's internal power struggle. Louis was assassinated in 1407 — one of the political murders that triggered the Armagnac-Burgundian civil war — and the castle passed through various hands during the Hundred Years' War.

The castle subsequently served as a residence for various members of the French royal family, but its political independence made it suspect to the centralising Bourbon monarchy. Louis XIV ordered the partial demolition of Pierrefonds in 1617 as part of a systematic campaign against fortified nobles' castles that might serve as rebel strongholds. The main towers were blown up; the walls were breached.

Napoleon I purchased the romantic ruin in 1813, and his nephew Napoleon III acquired it from the state in 1861. Napoleon III had a vision of himself as the inheritor of medieval French kingship, and Pierrefonds — which he initially intended merely to stabilise as a picturesque ruin — gradually became a full restoration project. Viollet-le-Duc, who was simultaneously working on Notre-Dame and Carcassonne, began the project in 1857 and worked on it until his death in 1879, leaving the castle largely complete but with some interior rooms unfinished.

After Napoleon III's fall in 1870, the castle became state property and opened to the public. Viollet-le-Duc's theoretical writings about restoration — which defined the field for a century, for better and worse — drew heavily on his experience at Pierrefonds.

Getting there from Paris: Take a train from Paris Gare du Nord to Compiègne (50–70 min, every hour). From Compiègne, bus line 1 runs to Pierrefonds village (30 min) in summer months; alternatively, taxi from Compiègne (15 min, ~€25). By car from Paris, take the A1 north then D973 — about 80km, 1 hour. Many visitors combine with the Palace of Compiègne in the city itself.

Viollet-le-Duc's drawings: One of the most interesting aspects of visiting Pierrefonds is seeing Viollet-le-Duc's original drawings and models displayed in the castle — they make visible the gap between medieval remains and 19th-century invention, and are intellectually fascinating as documents of restoration theory.

Merlin fans: If you're visiting for the BBC series connection, the main courtyard and entrance gate are the principal filming locations. The interior rooms used for Camelot's throne room, corridors and dungeons are largely accessible on the standard tour.