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Origin and history

Gisors Castle is an old castle built between the end of the 11th and 12th centuries, then transformed into a castle. Located in the department of Eure in Normandy, it was built on a castral motte to defend the Duchy of Normandy against the claims of the King of France. The fortress, with a circular dungeon added to a pre-existing structure, was a strategic issue between Normans and Capetians, several times ceded and taken over.

The origins of the castle date back to 1097, when Robert II of Bellême erected a castral motte by order of William II the Roux, king of England and regent of Normandy. A wooden dungeon, probably surrounded by a palisade, was added in 1098. In 1113, the site hosted a meeting between Louis VI the Gros and Henry I of England. The castle experienced its first siege in 1120 during a rebellion of Norman lords, leading Henry I to strengthen its fortifications in 1123, with the addition of an octagonal stone dungeon.

In 1144 Geoffroy Plantagenet, Duke of Normandy, handed over the Norman castle and Vexin to Louis VII the Younger in exchange for his allegiance. The site became an Anglo-Norman bastion after the advent of Henry II Plantagenet in 1154. A meeting in 1158 between Henry II and Louis VII sealed the reconciliation of the two kingdoms by the marriage of the young Henri Plantagenet with Marguerite de France, endowed with the castle. Between 1158 and 1160, the fortress was entrusted to the Templars before returning to the Normans.

Henry II undertook a vast reconstruction campaign between 1170 and 1180, raising the two-storey dungeon and widening the ditches. A new, 800-metre-long, eight-round low enclosure was added to strengthen the defence. In 1188, an interview between Henri II and Philippe Auguste sealed a truce there before the third crusade. When Henry died in 1189, Auguste took advantage of the imprisonment of Richard Cœur de Lion to seize the castle in 1193, adding a second cylindrical dungeon, the " Tower of the Prisoner", inspired by the Louvre.

The Treaty of Gaillon in 1196 put Gisors definitively under French authority. The castle, losing its strategic role, was transformed into a prison and welcomed from 1310 to 1314 Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Templars, as well as three other dignitaries of the order. Conquered by the English in 1419, it was only taken over by France in 1449. Delayed after the end of the Franco-English conflicts, he was declassified in 1591.

Gisors Castle is also known for legends related to the Templar treasure. In the 1950s, unauthorised searches by guard Roger Lhomoy, claiming to have discovered underground rooms and safes, destabilized the foundations. No tangible evidence was ever found, but these rumours helped to popularize the myth of hidden treasure. Ranked a historic monument in 1862, the site has been restored since 2021 and is open to the public.

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