Château de Brest

Panorama of the Château de Brest

The Château de Brest is a castle in Brest, Finistère, France. The oldest monument in the town, it is located at the mouth of the river Penfeld at the heart of the roadstead of Brest, one of the largest roadsteads in the world. From the Roman castellum to Vauban's citadel, the site has over 1700 years of history, holding right up to the present day its original role as a military fortress and a strategic location of the highest importance. It is thus the oldest castle in the world still in use, and was classified as a monument historique on 21 March 1923[1].

Its structure has continually been rebuilt over the centuries to defend against all attacks by land and sea. Its heterogeneous architecture is thus the result of the defences' continual adaptation to new developments in siege warfare and armament.

The keep of the château de Brest, seen from the tour de Brest

An ideal geographic location

Brest - Chart of the Coasts and Roads of Brest with its Batteries and Forts

The Roadstead of Brest, well-protected by a narrow "goulet" but sufficiently large to allow ships to turn or move, forms a natural harbour. Its dimensions make it a small inland sea, capable of receiving the largest fleets. It is so vast that it offers a protected haven for ships.

This haven is fed by the river Penfeld from the north, running off the plateaus of Léon. Its lower course is winding, with high raised banks that break strong winds. Even heavy-tonnage vessels can berth safely in this vast and substantial area. The cape that divides the roadstead from the bay has four sides, three of which are defended by nature and with a fourth side that needs fortification but which is still easily defensible. This unique site gives the castle major strategic significance

The castle was thus built on a rocky outcrop carved out which the river has cut into the cliff at its mouth in the estaury. Since the place overlooks and dominates the sea, it controls access to the Penfeld and the lower reaches of the Elorn towards Landerneau, all whilst overlooking a major part of the roadstead and its entrance : the Goulet de Brest.

It is the only natural port the king has on the ocean sea. It is so advantageously disposed in all ways that if its location and form had been chosen by his Majesty himself it could not have been wished otherwise.

History

Origins

The site was inhabited during the Lower Palaeolithic (300,000 BC) and in the Neolithic agricultural activity occurred on the site. Other coastal populations are known in the 6th and 4th centuries BC and the rocky spur was occupied until the end of the Iron Age. Its remarkable position allows a hypothesis that the site held a prehistoric fortification, but the first fort of which evidence remains is from the Roman era.

Around 500BC, a tribe of merchants and sailors in leather barks known as the Osismii peopled the region. To them are to be attributed the gold coinage discovered around Brest, as well as a road predating the Roman presence in the area. The tribe's territory (roughly equivalent to today's Finistere) was bordered to the south by the territory of the Veneti and to the east by that of the Curiosolites, with its capital at and Vorgium (Carhaix). This end of the world (Finis terrae) only saw Roman occupation very late in the Roman period.

Roman fort of Osimis - end of the 3rd century

Coin with the image of Postumus

Opus mixtum

Imprint of a Roman tower

From Roman coinage found on the site, it appears that the Romans were present there at least by the reign of the emperor Postumus (193-211). The Roman province of Armorica thus had to face Saxon raids. To face the barbarian invasion threat and the disintegration of the Roman empire, it became necessary to create forts at Brests and several other sites along these coasts.

The Romans erected a defensive work at the end of the 3rd century. This camp or castellum housed 1000 men of a troop, headed by a prefect, as well as a fleet designed to intercept pirate ships. Only one of its walls now survives - these foundations were encased in the ramparts of the present castle, extending for 120-140m in length, on an average height of 3-4m.

These begin from the base of the wall. In large part interred under the false-wall of the castle or under the carpark, it remains visible at 2-3m high. Their external appearance is characteristically Roman, with brick and stone alternating in "opus mixtum", sometimes arranged in "fish-bone" pattern. This 4m thick fortified wall, with 10 cylindrical towers, defends the point and forms a bar across the spur. The absence of Roman remains inside the castle suggests it was a purely military work and not also a civil oppidum. The section of the razed towers at ground level remains visible in the false wall.

It seems that the Romans did not entirely complete the fortified wall since their presence here was short-lived. At this era it is possible that the sea coast was simply defended by a ditch and palisade. 1832 saw the discovery of the foundations of a round tower, Roman in appearance, near what is now the tour de Brest.

The wall was certainly completed as a curtain wall on 3 sides, in a regular trapezoid, with 12 turrets on each side. Another Gallo-Roman remain survives - a 1.4m wide postern, demolished in the Middle Ages (its stones and bricks survive in the tour Madeleine).

The counts of Léon

From the Romans' departure (410-420) until the 11th century, little is known as to the history of the castellum at Brest. It remained a stronghold and thus belonged to the counts of Léon, whilst a town developed at the foot of the Roman enclosure. In 537, count Elven held court at Brest. His daughter, Azenor, is the subject of a legend and she has thus given her name to one of the castle's towers.

Around 1064 or 1065, duke Conan II (or possibly Léon Morvan II, one of the vicomtes de Léon) ordered the renovation of the castle, cutting a moat around it and building a chapel within the enclosure, dedicated to "Notre Dame de Pitié" (destroyed in 1819), and a keep (perhaps in the northern corner of the fortifications).

In 1240, the castle passed to the duke of Brittany, John I, and became an essential part of the duchy's defence system. Hervé IV left the place, HQ of the counts of Léon, to avoid a confrontation and in return for 100 livres of rent. The loss of the castle and attempts to retake it sounded the death knell of the county of Léon.

The castle remained unbeaten by the Normans. During this period was built the tour César, possibly on the ruins of a Gallo-Roman tower. It blocked all access to the rocky outcrop. The tour Azenor and the curtain wall onto which it is built also date to this time.

Architecture