Château de Noyers-sur-Serein

About

The castle of Noyers-sur-Serein is a former medieval fortress located in Noyers, in the present department of the Yonne in the north of Burgundy. Built before the 11th century by the lords of Noyers, the castle was enlarged and fortified at the beginning of the 13th century by Hugues de Noyers, bishop of Auxerre. The prominent figure in the lineage of this powerful family is undoubtedly Miles X de Noyers, Marshal of France and king's adviser.

The county of Noyers then passed for a century to the Dukes of Burgundy and the castle was one of the keys to the duchy. Owned by the prince of Condé, leader of the Huguenot party, Noyers became during the religious wars the stakes of fierce fighting and sieges between Catholics and Protestants, then between leaguers and royalists, before being destroyed in 1599 by order of King Henry IV. The ruins of what, according to historian Ernest Petit, was "a formidable fortress, one of the most considerable in Burgundy".