CASTLES WITHIN FORGOTTEN TOWNSCAPES: FORTIFIED MEDIEVAL TOWNS IN THEIR ENVIRONMENTIN EURE-ET-LOIR
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2021-02-02

Since the 12th c. in the north of France, castles are connected with fortified towns, which have a deep impact on the environment, especially in a fluvial context. If ruined castles are the focus of archaeological studies, people are more attracted by the monumental remains of the walls and their resilience in the town-plan. While rescue archaeology in small towns faces the lack of historical knowledge, local policies can make wide use of this heritage to attract tourists, which is important in the Eure-et-Loir, 40km from Paris. During the medieval period, this sector is influenced by the royal domain, the counties of Blois, Perche, Chartres, and the duchy of Normandy. Although the town walls, doors and moats can still be noticeable in the actual landscape, these monumental remains are mostly ignored. No legal nor material protections are applied and urban development is a danger for the preservation of this heritage. Moreover, the knowledge of these towns has been neglected since the 1960s. Only Chartres (cathedral UNESCO) is the place of attention, but environmental data are still lacking. The program “FortUM” is aimed to study these fortified towns in order to place them in their environment. The focus is on urban townscapeS and systemS, the link between town and country and the management of the hydrosystem. The good preservation of the town plan and poor urban development since the 19th c. allow us to get core data on urbanised rivers and to conduct geophysical survey of large sectors of towns. The first results have been acquired by the study of ancient maps, archives, and of excavation data. They show that a first network of fortified localities emerges in the 11th c. It can also be observed that a strong artificialisation of the hydrosystem has taken place since the 11th-12th century.


Author(s): Borderie, Quentin (CNRS - UMR 7041 ArScAn; Service de l’archéologie préventive d’Eure-et-Loir) - Lecroère, Thomas - Acheré, Vincent (Direction de l’archéologie - Chartres Métropole) - Bryant, Simon (Ministère de la culture) - Capron, François (Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives) - Labat, Olivier (Service de l’archéologie préventive d’Eure-etLoir) - Lelong, Alain (Les Amis de Bonneval) - Louis, Antoine (CNRS-l’ESR 3155 IRAA) - Pinhède, Anaïs (CNRS - UMR 7041 ArScAn)