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Origin and history

The Etremchicourt castral motte, also known as Hasencort Castle or Azincourt Farm, is a historic site located in the northern department. Originally evoked as a feudal motte or a Gallic funeral tertre, it was the place of a castle destroyed in 1181 by Baudouin V of Hainaut. The latter punished Gérard, provost of Douai and lord of Emerchicourt, for having wounded his cousin Berniers. Gérard's nephew, Wuillaume de Roeulx, avengea fought by killing a friend of the count, causing the destruction of the property of the family and the village of Roeulx.

At the beginning of the 13th century, Gilles Brousse (or Broisse), lord of Denain and d'Hasencort, occupied the premises and gradually sold his lands of Azincourt, especially to the nuns of the Pres in 1225 and 1238, and then to private individuals in 1251. The motte, typical of medieval fortresses, consisted of a circular terrace surrounded by ditches, a wooden palisade, and a tower. Excavations also suggest a possible Gaulish origin, although not confirmed.

The present farm, built in 1726 on the terre, became a prosperous agricultural estate before being incorporated into the Compagnie des Mines d'Azincourt in 1840. In the 19th century, it housed a distillery and was modernized by the Count of Moutiers, ambassador to Constantinople, who financed drainage works there. The land, rich in limestone, was exploited for agriculture and mining, with remains like the rider of Azincourt and a career still visible.

In the 20th century, the farm changed hands several times: owned by Alfred Locquet (1940–68), then by Stephen Van De Weghe, before being transformed into a stud in the 1980s. In 1997, an association set up a social and cultural reintegration site. In 2012, the initial tourist centre project was abandoned in favour of a falconry, after a controversial takeover by the community of communes Cœur d'Ostrevent.

The site preserves remarkable features: a 200-foot-diameter mound at the top, ditches still visible to the west, and suspected undergrounds. The historic coat of arms of Hasencort, silver with the eagle of Gules, recalls its seigneurial past. The motte and its bassyard have been classified as Historic Monument since 1988.

The regional archaeological context reveals a density of castral mots in the Douaisis, as in Auby, Écaillon or Bugnicourt, reflecting the fragmentation of medieval power. These fortresses served to establish the authority of a local aristocracy, in a period marked by the weakening of the Counts and the rise of the chestnut seigneuries.

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