Photo : Matteo Bombardieri / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Château de La Ferté-Milon
The castle of La Ferté-Milon, in the Aisne, looks like a romantic stage set: its broad façade, 104 m wide and 20 m high, opens onto nothing. The reason is simple: the building work ordered by Prince Louis of Orléans stopped when he died in 1407.
It was meant to be one of the largest castles ever built, a testament to the prince's power and magnificence. Unfinished, it nevertheless suffered the ravages of war and time, leaving only ruins. It is a strange castle, still a fortress yet heralding the Renaissance: the two towers framing the entrance have a spur to resist sapping, yet are pierced with large windows, contrary to the needs of medieval defence. The fortress was becoming a palace.
