Château d'Harcourt, Ruinous château in Thury-Harcourt, France

The Château d'Harcourt is a ruined 17th- and 18th-century stately home on the bank of the Orne. Only the main façade of 1635, built of light grey stone with reddish brick panels, survives, with a dark arched doorway and three square openings in the raised central block. Two guard pavilions and a restored chapel remain, and a ruined wing shows a triangular gable and a domed pavilion.

Thury had a castle from the Middle Ages, and in 1046 the Norman baron Raoul II Tesson du Cinglais joined a plot against the young Duke William before changing sides. The barony passed through the Tesson, Crespin, Préaux and Montmorency families and was raised to a marquisate in 1578. In 1635 Odet d'Harcourt bought it and built the oldest part of the present château; his descendant Henri d'Harcourt, made first duke in 1700, extended it with a long wing along the Orne. On 12 August 1944 soldiers of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich set fire to it, and only the façades, two gate pavilions and the restored chapel survive.

The château gave its name to the Harcourt family, whose English branch, the Harcourts, still exists. The 5th duke, François-Henri d'Harcourt, wrote a book promoting the English landscape garden and laid out such a park opposite the château, one of the first in France. The ruins are listed as a monument historique.

The ruins stand on the bank of the Orne, 350 m northwest of the Saint-Sauveur church in Thury-Harcourt. Access to the courtyard is by a footbridge over dry ditches, flanked by two guard pavilions. Only the 17th-century main façade, the pavilions and the restored chapel survive, so the visit is outdoors and short.

In 1940, about fifty objects from the château already classified as historical monuments, including furniture, artworks and family souvenirs, were moved for safety to the Château de Carrouges. The building itself was set alight on 12 August 1944 by soldiers of the retreating 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, who used the smoke as cover.