Donjon de Vez, Medieval keep in Vez, France

Donjon de Vez is a medieval keep in the village of Vez, in the Oise department of northern France, built in the Gothic style with thick stone walls. It rises to a considerable height and is surrounded by a moat and curtain walls that are still standing today.

The keep was built in the late 14th century under Jean de Vez and completed in the early 15th century. Over the following centuries it changed hands several times before being listed as a historic monument.

The name Vez was wrongly linked to Valois by 16th- to 18th-century historians such as Claude Carlier, who made it the seat of a Carolingian principality; no archaeological evidence supports this. The castle passed to the counts of Crépy-en-Valois, then to the royal domain when Philip Augustus annexed Valois in 1185, before Philip gave the whole Vez estate to Raoul d'Estrées as a reward for Bouvines.

The keep stands on the northern edge of the village of Vez, overlooking the Automne valley, south of the western entrance to the village. The site is privately owned and has served since the late 20th century as a setting for contemporary works — sculptures, paintings and stained glass — with sculpture exhibitions held in the gardens since 1988. Check access conditions before travelling.

The keep's only defensive features are the machicolations along the edge of its top terrace; it was built from about 1390 as a residence, not a fortress. Its five-sided plan holds four habitable floors. The likely architect, Jean Lenoir, worked in the royal service at Senlis.