Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Moret-sur-Loing Castle is a former castle today in ruins, located on the edge of the Gâtinais plateau, above the Loing and the former municipality of Moret-sur-Loing, integrated since in Moret-Loing-et-Orvanne (Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France). Built in 1126 by Louis VI le Gros at the same time as the city walls, it monitored a strategic point: the bridge crossing the Loing on the road linking Paris to Burgundy, near the confluence with the Seine. Its rectangular buttressed dungeon, typical of 12th century military architecture, illustrates its defensive importance under the Capetians.

The castle was a royal residence frequented by several sovereigns. Louis VII le Jeune and Philippe II Auguste stayed there regularly, while Blanche de Castille and his son Louis IX (Saint Louis) lived there between 1228 and 1229 during hunting parties in the forest of Fontainebleau. In 1239, Saint Louis stopped there from returning from a journey that allowed the recovery of the Holy Crown. The dungeon was also transformed into a state prison in 1311 to lock up the future Louis X, on the orders of Philip IV the Bel. After annexing Champagne to the crown, the castle lost its strategic importance.

In the 15th century, during the Hundred Years' War, Henry V of England took Moret-sur-Loing in 1420, occupying the city for a decade. Returning under French control, Charles VII installed 12 snauvrines there to strengthen his defences. The dungeon, a symbol of this tumultuous past, was partially inscribed in historical monuments by decrees of 28 April 1926 and 19 July 1974. Its remains, descending on a staircase to the river, recall the medieval organization of the city, installed at the head of the bridge and on the slopes of the castral hill.

Today, the ruins of the castle of Moret, including its dungeon and the remaining parts of the enclosure, offer an architectural testimony of the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. Their location, between Rue du Château and Rue du Donjon in Moret-Loeng-et-Orvanne, makes it a historic site marked by conflicts and Capetian royal life. The monument, although partially protected, remains an emblem of the military and royal heritage of Île-de-France.

External links