Le Château de Vincennes

I visited the Vincennes Castle today with my architecture class!  This castle was built outside of Paris as a fortification from 1361-1379/80.  It consists of 9 towers around a keep and a manor.  King Charles V lived here until his death in 1380.  After being abandoned in the 18th century, it also served as a prison for the wealthier people.  There is even graffiti on the wall dating back hundreds of years from the prisoners!

The main part of our visit was to see the keep.  There, we saw the king's bathroom/bedroom and office and some other random rooms.  In the corner of each room, there were carvings of animals that each represented Matthew, Mark, Luke and John from the Bible.  The staircase for the King was easy to walk up, but when we walked down the staircase for the servants, I was so dizzy and almost fell!  It was a spiral staircase, like every other staircase in France, but very narrow.  We only went down 2 floors, but the servants had to go down 4!  Goodness!

We also saw the moat outside the castle.  I couldn't believe how deep it was!  There were also many holes in the walls so the people inside could to protect themselves from the intruders.  We also learned about "murder holes."  These were holes above the door way where someone inside could drop either hot sand, water, or whatever else they could find on the intruders and knock them out.  What a smart idea!

There is also another Sainte-Chapelle here.  You can see it in a picture or two.  We didn't go inside there, just spent time in the keep and looking at the architecture of the entrance way.  I loved the draw bridges as well! I would have taken more pictures, but I was too cold!  It should be warming up soon.  I'm crossing my fingers!