Fort la Latte

Fort la Latte, properly the Chateau de la Roche Goyon, stands on a promontory separated from the mainland by two natural clefts, each crossed by a drawbridge, with the sea below on three sides; the position is the defence. It was begun in the fourteenth century and remodelled under Vauban's influence in the seventeenth, when the cannonball oven was added, a furnace for heating shot red before firing it at wooden ships. The keep is climbed for a view along the Emerald Coast to Cap Frehel. Its silhouette made it a film location, notably for The Vikings in 1958.

History

The castle was built by Étienne III Gouÿon, lord of Matignon, an ancestor of the present princes of Monaco; work began in the 1340s and the keep dates from 1365-1370. After Duke John IV of Brittany returned from exile in 1379, it was besieged by Bertrand du Guesclin, and it was taken again in the Wars of Religion and then abandoned, until under Louis XIV it regained its strategic value and was given bastions. Obsolete after the First Empire, it passed to private owners from 1892, was listed as a monument historique in 1925, and in 1931 was bought by the historian Frédéric Joüon des Longrais, whose restoration took more than twenty years; electricity arrived only in 2001 (Wikipedia, Fort-la-Latte).

Highlights

• The two drawbridges - crossings over natural clefts to the castle rock.
• The cannonball oven - a furnace for heating shot before firing.
• The keep - climbed for views along the coast to Cap Frehel.
• The sea setting - water on three sides below the walls.

When to go

April to October; the fort closes or reduces hours in winter. The walk in from the car park takes about ten minutes across the heath. Wind on the walls is strong.

Things to know

The approach is a walk from a paid car park, not a drive to the gate. Interiors are limited and largely bare. The site is exposed and unsheltered in bad weather.

Nearby

Cap Frehel lies west; Saint-Malo is east.

Key facts