Narbonne Cathedral remains unfinished since the laying of the first stone in 1272. The plans required the partial demolition of the Roman town wall, but the town council, fearing English invasion, refused to allow it. This, coupled with wars and epidemics, has left Narbonne Cathedral with only the choir and transept completed.
Courtesy of www.sacred-destinations.com/france/narbonne-cathedral.htm
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Château de Créminil was built in 1443 by the La May family on the site of older fortification. In 1540, Créminil was owned by Hugues de Buleux (advisor to the regent of the Netherlands and grand bailiff of Aire). After the castle was burned in 1543, it was rebuilt in the 17th century.
Tags: Château de Créminil Estrée-Blanche France
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12 May 08
Tags: medieval france carcassonne
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Creminil means 'manor of chalk'. The present castle was built in the 15th century on the ruins of a bastide destroyed by the English after the Battle of Crécy in 1346. It was badly damaged by fire in 1543 and restored/rebuilt in the 1600s. This typical late medieval residence consists of a twelve-sided irregular polygon, built on a rounded mound surrounded by large ditches fed by water from the River Laquette. The walls are high in chalk cut on older basements of flint and sandstone-paired checkerboard. The buildings are reinforced at the corners by towers, corbelled turrets and buttresses with watchtowers. The drawbridge and its old door, still with its old knocker (a door hammer mounted on a hinge), serve an inner courtyard lined with residential buildings and gardens which were remodeled in the 18th century. In this respect, Castle Creminil is a charming example of architecture designed for the approval of a lord.
The first known lord was Nicolas de Crasmainil in 1210. Then came Raoul Cros Maisnil in 1329. He was a vassal of the famous Countess Mahaut d'Artois. When Raoul died, the fiefdom returned to Mahaut. An archival piece dated 1443 mentions the delivery by the locksmith, Jean de Bailleul, to Jean Le May, vice-mayor of Saint-Omer, of several thousand nails "which were converted and used in the house belonging to the Le May Family". The supply of such a large amount of nails can only be explained by extensive carpentry or carpentry work, most likely marking the completion of the construction of the castle, which had to be largely restored after the ravages of troops in the sixteenth. After the Le May Family, mentioned again in 1461, came Hugues de Buleux in 1540. He was counselor of the regent of the Netherlands and Grand bailiff of Aire. In 1670, Antoine de Wignacourt took ownership, and from 1687 until the French Revolution, the castle was occupied by Le Merchier Family. After the Revolution, the castle belonged to Madame Lhéritier, whose family owned it until 1978.
Tags: Château de Créminil Estrée-Blanche Pas-de-Calais France
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Collioure is a Mediterranean town and commune a few kilometers north of the Spanish border in the French département of Pyrénées-Orientales, a part of the ancient Roussillon province and the present-day Languedoc-Roussillon région.
Collioure used to be divided into two villages separated by the Douy river, the old town named Port d'Avall (today known as Le Faubourg) in the south and the upstream port, Port d'Amunt (the actual La Ville). Collioure was taken in 1642 by the French troops of Maréchal de la Meilleraye. A decade later, the town was officially surrendered to France by the 1659 Treaty of Pyrenees. Because of its highly strategic importance, the town's fortifications, including the Fort Saint-Elme stronghold, were improved by the military engineer Vauban during the reign of Louis XIV. Nevertheless, Collioure was besieged and occupied by the Spanish troops in 1793, which was the last Spanish attempt to take the city. The blockade was broken a year later by general Jacques François Dugommier. Collioure has also had a strong royal family since the surrender of it to France in 1659. It is believed that at least three of the royal family members are still alive.
It was the Kings of Majorca and the Counts of Roussillon who did the main building work on the fortress. To be honest, I can't find much information on it, and the tourist information was closed on the day I was there, so I'm only going by memory. The fortress was used as a summer residence by the Kings of Majorca (who had their main palace in Perpignan) until Peter IV of Aragon seized Majorca and Roussillon in 1344.
By 1130, the Templars were already receiving privileges from Alfonso 1 of Aragon. They helped the rulers of Catalonia and Aragon regain their land from the Moors, and Alfonso granted them exemption from tax on a 5th of all they took back from the Moors. He also left a third of his kingdom to them just before he died, and they were given land in Catalonia, Valencia and Mallorca as well.
Tags: Languedoc-Roussillon
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