Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château d'Epinal, located on a sandy eminence at 387 m above sea level, overlooks the Moselle valley and the city since the 10th century. Around the year millet, Thierry I of Hamelant, bishop of Metz, erected a first wooden tower (the so-called tower of the Voué) to protect his lands from Burgundy incursions. This strategic point, surrounded by palissades, controls the valleys of Ambrail and Saint-Michel, marking the birth of the parish of Saint-Maurice and the future village of Épinal.

In the 13th century, Bishop Jacques de Lorraine built a new stone castle on the rocky spur, succeeding the early fortress. This fortified complex, of polygonal type in Bergfried, includes a residential dungeon, a filter tank, and ancillary buildings (army, seigneurial house, chapel). The excavations of the 1980s revealed these structures, as well as traces of the Basel earthquake (1356), which will crack the dungeon. The site, adapted to artillery in the 16th century by the Dukes of Lorraine, became a major military issue.

The castle suffered numerous sieges and destruction, notably in 1670, when Louis XIV's troops razed it to punish the Lorraine resistance. The remains, partially buried, were reinvested in the 19th century by Christophe Doublat, who created a romantic landscape garden of 20 hectares, embellished with a Chinese tower (1809) and picturesque factories. Ranked a historic monument in 1992, the site now combines medieval ruins and landscape heritage, an identity symbol found after archaeological campaigns (1984-1992).

The excavations exhumed key elements such as the captain's house, the oven, or the 16th century gunboats, bearing witness to successive military adaptations. The dungeon, partially rebuilt in 1993, peaks at 13 metres, while the park, redeveloped between 2011 and 2013, offers a contemporary reading of this hybrid heritage, both military, aristocratic and romantic.

The history of the castle reflects the geopolitical tensions of Lorraine: conflicts between the bishops of Metz and Dukes of Burgundy (15th century) and the Franco-Lorrainian wars (17th century). Its systematic destruction in 1670 marked the end of its strategic role, but its reinvestment in the 19th century by local notables (Doublat, Brocart) made it a place of memory, now open to the public and integrated into the urban landscape of Epinal.

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