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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Old Castle is a castle built in the 14th century on the island of Yeu, replacing an old wooden fortress built by Clunisian monks in the late 10th century to protect themselves from barbaric invasions. This strategic site was then under the control of the lords of La Garnache, masters of the island. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Sires of Belleville, including Jeanne de Belleville, heiress of the fiefs including the island of Yeu, began the construction of a stone castle to strengthen the defence of the island. Jeanne, described as an outstanding strategist by chronicler Froissard, married Olivier IV de Clisson in 1330, a great builder and warman, who modified and strengthened the castle to make it a key part of his network of fortifications in Brittany.

In 1355, English privateer Robert Knolles seized the castle during an invasion, occupying the island for thirty-seven years. It was only in 1392 that the island was taken over by Olivier V de Clisson, son of Olivier IV, during the reconquest of the Poitou. During the Renaissance, Jean V de Rieux, the new master of the island, built bastioned enclosures around the castle, designed by Italian engineers introduced to France by François I. These fortifications, forerunners of the Vaubanian models, successfully resisted in 1550 an attack by several thousand Spanish soldiers, forced to retreat.

The castle lost its strategic usefulness after the construction of small coastal forts between 1654 and 1660, inspired by Vauban techniques. For fear that it would fall into the hands of the enemy, Louis XIV ordered its dismantling at the end of the seventeenth century, like other coastal castles. Ranked a historic monument in 1900, it was searched and restored in the 1970s by Maurice Esseul, a native of the island, who has been organizing visits and conferences there. The castle, located on an isolated rock surrounded by the sea at great tides, preserves remarkable defensive elements: four circular towers, a drawbridge, a cylindrical dungeon and interior buildings such as a forge, a kitchen and a bakery.

Architecturally, the Old Castle illustrates the evolution of military techniques, from medieval stone fortifications to bastioned Renaissance enclosures. Its dungeon, facing the sea and flanked by a quadrangular tower, dominates the whole, while an octagonal tower strengthens the west corner. An underground tank in the inner courtyard was used to collect stormwater, which was essential to withstand the seats. Although partially dismantled, the castle remains a symbol of island resistance, having inspired cultural works such as the Black Island of Hergé or the film Les Vacances du Petit Nicolas (2014).

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