There are at least 6 places in France are reputedly haunted, including the Château de Brissac, the Château de Trécesson in Brittany, the Catacombs and Cemetery of Père Lachaise in Paris, Mont Saint-Michel, and the Château de Châteaubriant in western France.
The château was originally built as a castle by the Counts of Anjou in the 11th century. After the victory over the English by King Philip II of France, he gave the property to Guillaume des Roches. In the 15th century, the structure was rebuilt by Pierre de Brézé, a wealthy chief minister to King Charles VII of France. During the reign (1515–47) of King Francis I, the property was acquired by René de Cossé, who was named by the King as governor of Anjou and Maine.
During the French Wars of Religion, the château was made a possession in 1589 by the Protestant leader, Henry of Navarre. Severely damaged, the fortress was scheduled to be demolished. However, Charles II de Cossé sided with Henry of Navarre, who soon was crowned King of France. In gratitude, King Henry gave him the property, the title Duke of Brissac and the money to rebuild the château in 1611.
Its construction made it the tallest château in France, and its façade reflects the influences of the 17th century's Baroque architecture. Through marriage, the Cossé-Brissac family also acquired the Château Montreuil-Bellay, but later sold it.
In August 1620, King Louis XIII and his mother, Marie de Medici, met to discuss their differences in the "neutral" territory of the Château de Brissac. A temporary truce between the two was reached, but it did not last long, and the Queen Mother was eventually banished.
The descendants of the first Duke of Brissac maintained the château until 1792, when the property was ransacked during the French Revolution. It lay in waste until a restoration program began in 1844 and was carried on by subsequent Dukes of Brissac.
The Château de Trécesson is a medieval castle in the Brittany region of France. It is located in the commune of Campénéac near the Paimpont forest and on the edge of the military camp of Coëtquidan. It is a private property.
| The Catacombs | |
Crypt of the Sepulchral Lamp in the Catacombs of
|
The Catacombs of Paris (French: Catacombes de Paris, are underground ossuaries in Paris, France, which hold the remains of more than six million people in a small part of a tunnel network built to consolidate Paris' ancient stone mines. Extending south from the Barrière d'Enfer ("Gate of Hell") former city gate, this ossuary was created as part of the effort to eliminate the city's overflowing cemeteries. Preparation work began not long after a 1774 series of gruesome Saint Innocents-cemetery-quarter basement wall collapses added a sense of urgency to the cemetery-eliminating measure, and from 1786, nightly processions of covered wagons transferred remains from most of Paris' cemeteries to a mine shaft opened near the Rue de la Tombe-Issoire.
The ossuary remained largely forgotten until it became a novelty-place for concerts and other private events in the early 19th century; after further renovations and the construction of accesses around Place Denfert-Rochereau, it was open to public visitation from 1874. Since January 1, 2013, the Catacombs number among the 14 City of Paris Museums managed by Paris Musées. Although the ossuary comprises only a small section of the underground "carrières de Paris" ("quarries of Paris"), Parisians presently often refer to the entire tunnel network as "the catacombs"
Père Lachaise Cemetery (French: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, [simtjɛːʁ dy pɛːʁ laʃɛːz]; formerly, cimetière de l'Est, "Cemetery of the East") is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris (44 hectares or 110 acres), although there are larger cemeteries in the city's suburbs.
Père Lachaise is in the 20th arrondissement and is notable for being the first garden cemetery, as well as the first municipal cemetery. It is also the site of three World War I memorials.
The cemetery is on Boulevard de Ménilmontant. The Paris Métro station Philippe Auguste on line 2 is next to the main entrance, while the station named Père Lachaise, on both lines 2 and 3, is 500 metres away near a side entrance that has been closed to the public. Many tourists prefer the Gambetta station on line 3, as it allows them to enter near the tomb of Oscar Wilde and then walk downhill to visit the rest of the cemetery.
Each year, Père Lachaise Cemetery has more than 3.5 million visitors, making it the most visited cemetery in the world.
Le Mont-Saint-Michel (pronounced [mɔ̃ sɛ̃ mi.ʃɛl]; Norman: Mont Saint Miché, English: Saint Michael's Mount) is an island and mainland commune in Normandy, France.
The island is located about one kilometer (0.6 miles) off the country's northwestern coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches and is 7 hectares (17 acres) in area. The mainland part of the commune is 393 hectares (971 acres) in area so that the total surface of the commune is 400 hectares (988 acres).
As of 2015, the island has a population of 50.
The island has held strategic fortifications since ancient times and since the 8th century AD has been the seat of the monastery from which it draws its name. The structural composition of the town exemplifies the feudal society that constructed it: on top, God, the abbeyand monastery; below, the great halls; then stores and housing; and at the bottom, outside the walls, houses for fishermen and farmers.
The commune's position — on an island just a few hundred metres from land — made it accessible at low tide to the many pilgrims to its abbey, but defensible as an incoming tide stranded, drove off, or drowned would-be assailants. The Mont remained unconquered during the Hundred Years' War; a small garrison fended off a full attack by the English in 1433. The reverse benefits of its natural defence were not lost on Louis XI, who turned the Mont into a prison. Thereafter the abbey began to be used regularly as a jail during the Ancien Régime.
One of France's most recognizable landmarks, visited by more than 3 million people each year, the Mont Saint-Michel and its bay are on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Over 60 buildings within the commune are protected in France as monuments historiques.
The Château de Châteaubriant is a medieval castle strongly modified during the Renaissance, located in the commune of Châteaubriant in the Loire-Atlantique département of France. The original castle was founded in the 11th century on the eastern border of Brittany and, such as the fortresses in Vitré, Fougères, Ancenis and Clisson, it was defending the duchy against Anjou and the Kingdom of France.
The castle was renovated several times during the Middle Ages and the town of Châteaubriant developed at its side. During the Mad War, the castle was seized by the French after a siege. The keep and the halls, partially destroyed, were renovated in the flamboyantstyle. Eventually, during the 16th century, the château obtained its definitive appearance when the new Renaissance palace was built against the medieval enceinte.
After the French Revolution, the château was sold and divided several times, and was finally transformed into an administrative centre, with the seat of the sous-préfecture, a court and a police station. All these offices closed down after 1970, and nowadays the château is partly opened to visitors.
No comments:
Post a Comment