Sedan Castle

The chateau fort of Sedan covers about thirty-five thousand square metres over seven levels, generally described as the largest fortified castle in Europe, and it got that way by accretion: begun in 1424, it was enlarged and thickened repeatedly until the walls in places are around twenty-seven metres thick, with older towers swallowed inside newer masonry so that they now stand as rooms within the wall. Turenne, the marshal of Louis XIV, was born here in 1611. The castle served as a barracks and then a fortress into the twentieth century. Passages, casemates and the tower interiors are visited on a marked route with audio guide.

What you actually see

• The buried towers - fifteenth-century towers enclosed inside later walls.
• The casemates and passages - internal routes through the thickness of the fortress.
• The seven levels - stacked terraces and courtyards on the rock.
• The scale from outside - a solid stone mass over the town.

When to go

April to October; the castle opens year-round with shorter winter hours. Medieval festival weekends fill it in summer. The interiors are cold and damp in winter.

Honest expectations

Much of the visit is bare stone corridors and casemates rather than furnished rooms. There is a lot of stair climbing. Part of the castle is occupied by a hotel and closed to visitors.

Nearby

Charleville-Mezieres lies west; the Ardennes forest is north.