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Château de Villers-Châtel
The Château de Villers-Châtel, in the Pas-de-Calais, is a 14th-15th-century fortress on a quadrangular plan surrounded by round towers and a keep. On the west side, a round tower known as 'le fort' is the surviving medieval part. In 1750 part of the castle was demolished and a new building constructed, of which the entrance façade remains. The château changed hands several times in the 19th century.
In 1860 the castle chapel was built by Baron Béthune, a Belgian architect and champion of the Neo-Gothic, who also added a Troubadour-style gallery to the 18th-century façade and built a wing at right angles with a square keep at the junction. During the First World War the château served as an infirmary; it was occupied by the British and then the Germans in the Second World War. A model farm, rebuilt after the First World War, faces the château, with a large walled kitchen garden and orchard between them, and a Lourdes grotto stands in the park. The exterior can be visited.
