Vincennes Castle

Vincennes Castle is known primarily for the fact that at different times such famous personalities as the Duke of Beaufort (he is considered the “Man in the Iron Mask”), the thinker Diderot and the Marquis de Sade were imprisoned there. A dancer suspected of espionage, known as Mata Hari, was executed. However, most of all, the Vincennes Castle is interesting for its history and architectural heritage.

The castle was built in the XIV century on the site of a hunting estate of the XII century. He was visited several times by the royal persons to whom he belonged. The interior of the castle was built up and rebuilt. By order of the Sun King Louis XIV, the King's Palace and the Queen's Palace were built, which were used as summer residences of the royal couple.

At the beginning of the XIX century, Napoleon Bonaparte made the Chateau de Vincennes a strategically important military facility and equipped it with rich artillery. The castle really looks impregnable. Once it was surrounded by a moat, and it was possible to get into it only by a folding bridge, loopholes gape in high walls. This is what turned the castle into a prison.

Today, the castle of Vincennes is part of the city limits of modern Paris. Not far from it there is a metro station of the same name.