Donjon de Houdan
Encyclopedia
Houdan
Houdan is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.-Geography:Houdan is west of Paris in the Yvelines département. It is linked by SNCF Alençon and Paris .-History:...
in the Yvelines
Yvelines
Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France.-History:Yvelines was created from the western part of the defunct department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application from 26 February 1965.It gained the...
département of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Architecture
Constructed around 1120-1137 by Amaury III of MontfortAmaury III of Montfort
Amaury III de Montfort was seigneur de Montfort l'Amaury from 1101 to 1137 and comte d'Évreux from 1118 to 1137. He was the son of Simon I, seigneur de Montfort, and his wife Agnès d'Évreux.- Marriages and children :...
, the keep or donjon
Keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...
is the only vestige of the medieval castle of Houdan. It is a massive tower isolated from the borough in the west, and is currently used as a water tower.
The tower is cylindrical, 16 metres in diameter and 25 metres in height. It is flanked by four turrets 4.8 metres in diameter each at cardinal points on the central cylinder. The walls of the tower have an average thickness of three metres.
The tower consists of three levels: a ground floor, and two higher floors. The interior floors and roof have disappeared. An access door was located 6 metres above the ground level and once gave access to the mezzanine
Mezzanine (architecture)
In architecture, a mezzanine or entresol is an intermediate floor between main floors of a building, and therefore typically not counted among the overall floors of a building. Often, a mezzanine is low-ceilinged and projects in the form of a balcony. The term is also used for the lowest balcony in...
floor. Another entrance was located in one of the turrets.
The donjon is thought to have been one of the earliest experiments in improving flanking fire from the battlements (reduction of "dead ground"), and a transitonal form between the rectangular keeps of the 11th to 12th centuries, and widepsread adoption of cylindrical keeps in the 13th century. Other contemporary examples can bee seen at Étampes
Étampes
Étampes is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southwest from the center of Paris . Étampes is a sub-prefecture of the Essonne department....
and Provins
Provins
Provins is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.Provins, a town of medieval fairs, became a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site in 2001.-Administration:...
.
History
- 1120–1137: construction of the keep
- 1840: classified as an official historical building
- 1880: installation of a 200 kilolitre cistern in the keep, transforming it into a water tower
- 1903: acquisition of the keep by the town of Houdan, courtesy of the last private owner, a Dr. Aulet.
This tower has never been taken during its history.
