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Founded: 11th centuryCategory: Castles and fortifications in France
Historical period: Birth of Capetian dynasty (France)
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Château de Ballon is mentioned from the beginning of the 11th century. It is said to have been built by Robert I of Bellême to serve as a stronghold against the family of the Counts of Maine. The fortress quickly became the target of the Normans who sought to conquer the southern region.
From the 12th century onwards, Ballon passed into the hands of the Chaources family, who held the castle for two hundred years. The lordship was then under Anglo-Norman influence. In order to end the Plantagenet hegemony, Philip Augustus traveled to Maine. He captured Ballon twice in 1189 and 1199. The Ballon fortress was then burned and dismantled. Philip Augustus had it rebuilt and placed Hugues de Beauçais in charge.
During the Hundred Years' War, the fortress had to endure several sieges and was ravaged an conquered several times. The reconstruction of the keep and the part of Ballon began in 1469.
Today Château de Ballon is a triangle form castle with corner towers and moat. It has remarkable gardens built in the 1960s.
Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).