Situated near to the parish church at the northern edge of Caudebec forest, the vestiges of the castle overlook a wooded ravine where, in the Middle Age, the principal public road between Caudebec and Arques (-la Bataille) ran. According to the poet Wace, William the Bastard used the road to besiege Arque in 1054. The castle was probably founded by Richard, the Count of Evreux to replace that of Gravenchon which was seized by the Duke after the death of Robert, the grandson of Robert the Count of Evreux who died leaving no successor at the beginning of the 1060s. Maulevrier seemed to have become one of the favourite sojourns of Count William, the son of Richard, buried in Saint-Wandrille abbey in 1118.
The castle was laid out around a motte encircled by a strong solid levelled off wall – possibly, the remaining vestiges of a quadrangular keep. There was a semi-circular bailey attached to the motte with an enceinte wall, which conserves one side several metres high. In the interior, a well and traces of collapsed buildings can be seen – certain with limestone course facing. A large ditch surrounds the whole of the motte and bailey with a counterscarp facing the valley. Towards the village the plan is completed with a large exterior arc-shaped courtyard, at its two extremities its enceinte wall goes over the castle’s ditch to end up joining the interior courtyard’s wall.

Jacques Le Maho

Bibliography 

- J. Le Maho, « L’apparition des seigneuries châtelaines dans le Grand-Caux à l’époque ducale », Archéologie Médiévale, t. VI, 1976, p. 117