Friday 7th October 2022 – Sedan, France

The Chateau Fort (castle) of Sedan is the largest fortress in Europe and dominates the town, in fact the town didn’t really exist before the first castle was built in 1424. The castle was expanded many times over hundreds of years but the older parts were never completely destroyed. This means that it is possible to see many different styles of defences in one place.
Insufficient research meant that we attempted to visit the fort in the morning only to find that it didn’t open until noon. We walked back into the town and did a little more of the town trail before having an early lunch. We went to Loreate again and had another excellent meal. We then had plenty of time to see the castle and took the option of audio guides, which gave a lot more information than that shown in English on the boards. It was still possible to see the outline of the original 1423 castle and we loved the idea that future strengthening of the fort involved wrapping a much larger tower around the original one, leaving it intact. The extant fort is huge but there were also massive bastions created that protected the whole town. However, after the 1870/1 war it was realised that these were useless against the more modern artillery and they were demolished. The very impressive model of the fort and town showed just how enormous it was. We also learned that the ‘sedan chair’ was so called because Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne used such a device to visit his wife who lived in another part of the fort. And we were also told that sedan cars in the USA are named because of the quality and luxury of the cloth from Sedan used in the original sedan cars.
Also inside the castle is a very smart hotel, so if you have always wanted to stay in a castle, there is your opportunity.

Photos: These are some of the oldest buildings in the fort and show the triangular shape of the original castle; There are at least four phases of the castle visible in this photograph – the area of the car park and grass below the walls was once a wide and deep moat; Inside the wraparound tower with the original tower clearly visible; This model shows the extent of the fortifications – the largest Mediaeval castle in Europe; Ducks paddle off into the sunset.