Longchamps (Canton of Etrepagny, Eure) Keep

    The remains of this fortress, which formed part of the defences of the Epte, are the best preserved in the canton of Etrepagny.
Its history is fairly representative of the land-owning lords of the border regions. In the treaty of 1190 concluded between Philippe Auguste and Richard the Lion Heart, the latter effectively abandoned the Norman Vexin territory provided in particular that Etienne de Longchamp kept the land for which he owed allegiance to the King of France. When Richard took back the Norman Vexin territories in 1197, he gave the fortress back to Etienne. Philippe Auguste took it in 1201, and the latter returned it to him in 1204 and he died in Bouvines ten years later.
The castle which is located on a small spur of land barred by a ditch, close to the village, is built in flint and includes a cylindrical moated keep occupying the centre of a regular polygonal moated enclosure 33.5 m in diameter whose corners alternately have buttresses and six quadrangular towers of variable dimensions. The diameter of the keep is a dozen metres and its walls are more than 3 m thick.
The whole structure appears to have been built in a single campaign and its destruction took place in the first half of the 15th century.

Bibliography

- Delisle L. et Passy L. éd., Mémoires et notes de M. Auguste Le Prévost pour servir à l’histoire du département de l’Eure, t. II, Evreux, 1864, p. 323-324.
- Baume A., Les châteaux-forts et leur contexte historique dans la région des luttes franco-normandes (911-1204), Mémoire de maîtrise, Université de Rouen, ex. dactyl. cons. aux Arch. dép. Seine-Maritime (1mi 993), 1975, p. 170-172.
- Verdier F., Edifices fortifiés du canton d’Etrepagny, Nouvelles de l’Eure, 85, 1982-1983, p. 7 (et 20).
- Nardeux B., Longchamps, motte féodale, Amis des monuments et sites de l’Eure, 1990 [non uidi].
- Joulain D., L’Eure des Plantagenêts, Connaissance de l’Eure, 89-90, juillet-octobre 1993, p. 49-53, spécialement p. 51-52.