Creully
castle dominates the Seulles valley, in the fiefdom of Hamon le Dentu, one of
the resurgent vassals defeated by William the Conqueror at Val-ès-Dunes (1047).
The oldest parts of the construction were built in 1060. At one point Creully
was owned by Robert Fitz Hamon and then in 1107 passed to Robert de Caen, count
of Gloucester, illegitimate son of Henri I Beauclerc. Richard I de Creully, son
of Robert, made it his main residence in c. 1147.
Creully once again shows the arrangements of a high ranking lords residence
of the 12th of a type particularly well-represented in England, but
recognised in three other edifices in Normandy (Beaumont-le-Richard, Bricquebec
and Barneville-la-Bertran).
The residence originally consisted of a vast substantially build hall, seventeen
metres high, separated from a side aisle with a sloping roof with a series of
arcades. This hall was of the aula type where the lord held his meetings.
Besides this, forming a rampart along the valley, a long residential building on
two floors divided into many rooms, accommodated private apartments. The
kitchens and other outbuildings were also joined to this building. A low fully vaulted 12th century room is
preserved.
The great hall was re-worked from the 14th to the 16th century,
divided into
floors and given a Renaissance façade. But the traces of the 12th
century hall can still be seen in the south-east gable (sealed bays, pitch of
the roof).
- Impey, Edouard. - Le château de
Creully. Cabourg : Ed. des Cahiers du Temps, 1995
- Impey, Edouard. - Le château de Creully, in : Larchitecture normande
au moyen âge, actes du colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle, septembre 1994. - Caen
: Presses de l'Université. Condé-sur-Noireau : Ch. Corlet, 1997, T. 2, p.
315-319.