The fortified Flemish castle château de Grand-Rullecourt with its towers and crow’s-foot gables overlooks the road from Avesnes-le-Comte to Lucheux. The lords of Rullecourt were the generous donors of land to the Abbey of Mont-St-Eloi. Joan of Arc passed there as a prisoner in 1430. Antoine-Constant de Hamel started to build the new castle in 1746.
After the French Revolution, the chateau was sold as a national asset. His grandson bought it back but couldn't afford to keep it. It later belonged to Captain Wallerand de Hauteclocque, who was killed during World War I. After the war, the property was sold in parts. Later rented as a holiday camp, the castle was left uninhabited for some time. The daughter of Mr. Voisin, Mrs. Buneau, sold the chateau to Patrice and Chantal de Saulieu and their children on 24 December 1987. Today Château de Grand-Rullecourt is a Bed & Breakfast hotel.
References: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).