Association de Sauvegarde du

CHATEAU DE GAVRAY

THE PANORAMA

Opposite the entrance to the keep, in the northern part of the enclosure, which overlooks the village of Gavray, an orientation table has been placed.

  
The orientation table, and the banks of the Siena.

The rocky spur dominates the valleys of the Siena and the Bérence by about sixty metres: the steep slopes of the hill, and the marshy valleys, facilitated its defence.
To the north, however, the slope is less steep and there must have been a first line of defense.

When the castle was taken by Richemont in 1449, the chronicles indicate that he first took the "boulevard", i.e. a first line of fortifications, and from there was able to undermine and undermine the walls. The information board and picnic tables, which can be seen well below, are located at its presumed location.
Below, the location of the "boulevard", the first line of defense on the most vulnerable side of the hill. This is where the picnic tables are set up, on the "way to the city". The keep, as seen from the orientation table.
To the north, as seen from the orientation table

The gaze goes for miles around and it is easy to understand why the Dukes of Normandy had built a military castle on this hill. Its location, above a ford of the Siena, at the crossroads of the roads which, from Caen and the North Cotentin, led to Mont-Saint-Michel and Brittany, made it an interesting strategic point.

We can mention here the service of a certain Guillaume Pillevoy, commissioned by Charles of Navarre in 1371 to watch for men-at-arms or people on horseback, and to ring the bell bought for this purpose, so that the population could take shelter: the castle is the protected place par excellence; In the event of an alarm, the population, at the sound of the bell, takes refuge in the shelter of the high walls.

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