Château de Tiffauges, Medieval castle in Tiffauges, France.
Château de Tiffauges is a ruined fortress on an oval granite plateau of 220 by 150 metres at the confluence of the Sèvre Nantaise and Crûme. Its enclosure was flanked by twenty towers; inside remain the 12th-century square keep, now 18 metres high with flattened corner buttresses, and the ruins of the Saint-Vincent chapel with its Romanesque crypt. The horseshoe-shaped Vidame tower, built around 1520, carries a walkway on 37 machicolations.
The fortress developed between the 12th and 16th centuries under the control of different rulers across the medieval period. Its most noted resident was Gilles de Rais, a military leader who played a role in the region's conflicts of that era.
The castle is nicknamed Bluebeard's castle after Gilles de Rais, its most famous resident, who was executed in 1440. Since the 1990s it has hosted shows and a conservatory of medieval war machines, and its inner yard once served as a football pitch for the local club RST Tiffauges.
The castle stands on an oval granite plateau measuring 220 by 150 metres, with the keep at the south corner and the Vidame Tower at the north. The ground is uneven and partly ruined, so wear sturdy shoes. The site is owned by the Vendée departmental council and has been open to visitors since the 1990s.
The castle's inner courtyard once served as a football pitch for the local club, Réveil sportif teiphalien. A 16th-century hacquebute was found in the moats. The Vidame Tower's walkway, carried on 37 machicolations, has an acoustic effect that lets people speak in a whisper from one end to the other.
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