Ruud Streefkerk

Coucy le Château

On one of the last days of a trip to the South, I passed through the gate of Coucy le Château in Picardy in Northern France. The name Coucy comes from the Latin Codiciacum (probably derived from the word codex, which refers to a bare trunk with its  branches removed). Because of threat of the Normans, the Archbishop of Reims built  this castle in the 10th century on a hill surrounded with a wall. In the 12th century, under Enguerrand III, the castle was reconstructed in the form it has today. The threat of a conflict with the Crown, prompted the warlike Enguerrand to build a strong castle. From 1223 on, within a period of seven years, the whole complex, with donjon, towers, walls and underground passages, was constructed. The new building, with its almost 60 meter high donjon, controlled the northern passage to Paris, as well as the passage of the Valley of the Ailette to the Valley of the Oise, and was a conspicuous challenge to the French monarchs. Before the First World War the donjon of the castle was the highest reinforced tower in Europe, but the donjon, the four fortress-towers of the Castle and two entrance gates to the village, were blown up by the German army, when they retreated in 1917.