Château de Lion-sur-Mer, Medieval castle in Lion-sur-Mer, France.

Château de Lion-sur-Mer is a residence built partly in the Renaissance above 15th-century cellars. Its square pavilion, erected around 1540, rises to a 16-metre slate roof and has two corbelled watch-turrets on the south corners. The five upper windows keep their stone mullions and transoms, and three round-arched dormers with triangular pediments sit above them. A straight tree-lined drive leads from an iron gate past a neo-Gothic lodge of 1860.

In the 11th century the Moyon family held a fortified castle here, which lost its seigneurial status in the 16th century and has disappeared. The present château, built about a kilometre away, partly dates from the Renaissance over 15th-century cellars; its pavilion and corner tower were built after 1536 by André Le Sens and Philippine de Mélissent. The Le Sens descendants kept it until Auguste Massieu de Clerval bought it in 1847.

The chapel was built around 1736, and in 1944 shellfire in the park almost entirely destroyed it; the château itself was only slightly hit. Repairs were completed before 1959. The straight tree-lined drive leading past the chapel was laid out in 1761 by a member of the Le Sens family to give the property a grander approach.

The property opens to visitors only on special occasions such as Heritage Days, with access through 16 Rue de Luc-Sur-Mer. Check ahead to plan your visit around these limited opening windows.

A painting of the château by Maurice Utrillo was bought in 1969 by Samuel Porter, who lent it in 1973 to Harold Von Maker, later exposed as a swindler; the canvas vanished in Venezuela and has never resurfaced. Behind the ha-ha dug in the 18th century by Robert-Pierre Le Sens, called the Marquis de Lion, lies a cannon washed ashore and given to Madame de Than, born Le Sens de Folleville, by fishermen in the early 19th century.