Château de Pierrefonds The Château de Pierrefonds ( ) is a castle situated in the " commune " of Pierrefonds in the Oise " département " ( Picardy ) of France . It is on the southeast edge of the Forest of Compiègne , north east of Paris , between Villers - Cotterêts and Compiègne . The Château de Pierrefonds includes most of the characteristics of defensive military architecture from the Middle Ages , though it underwent a major restoration in the 19th century . History . In the 12th century , a castle was built on this site . Two centuries later , in 1392 , King Charles VI turned the County of Valois ( of which Pierrefonds was part ) into a Duchy and gave it to his brother Louis , Duke of Orléans . From 1393 to his death in 1407 , the latter had the castle rebuilt by the court architect , Jean le Noir . In March 1617 , during the early troubled days of Louis XIII ' s reign , the castle , then the property of François - Annibal d ' Estrées ( brother of the beauty Gabrielle d ' Estrée ) , who joined the " parti des mécontents " ( party of malcontents ) led by Henri II , Prince of Condé , was besieged and taken by troops sent by Richelieu , the secretary of state for war . Its demolition was started , but not carried through to the end because of the enormity of the task . The exterior works were razed , the roofs destroyed and holes made in the towers and curtain walls . The castle remained a ruin for more than two centuries . Napoleon I bought it in 1810 for less than 3 , 000 francs . During the 19th century , with the rediscovery of the architectural heritage of the Middle Ages , it became a " romantic ruin " : in August 1832 , Louis - Philippe gave a banquet there on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter Louise to Léopold de Saxe - Cobourg Gotha , first king of Belgium . Among other artists , Corot depicted the ruins in several works between 1834 and 1866 . The Château de Pierrefonds has been classified as a " monument historique " by the French Ministry of Culture since 1848 . Louis - Napoléon Bonaparte ( later Napoleon III of France ) visited the castle in 1850 . As emperor , he asked Viollet - le - Duc in 1857 to undertake its restoration , continuators are Maurice Ouadou and Juste Lisch until 1885 . There was no question of a simple repair to the habitable parts ( the keep and annexes ) : the " picturesque " ruins in front were to be kept for decor . In 1861 , the project grew in scale : the sovereign wanted to create an imperial residence , so the castle was to be entirely rebuilt . The works , which would cost 5 million francs , of which 4 million were to come from the civil list , were stopped in 1885 , six years after the death of Viollet - le - Duc . The departure of Napoléon III had halted the reconstruction and , through lack of money , the decoration of rooms was unfinished . Inside , Viollet - le - Duc produced more a work of invention than restoration ( polychrome paintings ) . He imagined how the castle ought to have been , rather than basing his work on the strict history of the building . On the other hand , with the exterior he showed an excellent knowledge of the military architecture of the 14th century . Château de Pierrefonds in media . The castle has often been used as a location for filming including " les Visiteurs " , " " , " " and the 1998 version of The Man in the Iron Mask . The castle serves as Camelot for the BBC series " Merlin " , and a cut scene of this castle was used to portray Wiz Tech Academy in Disney ' s TV series , " Wizards of Waverly Place " .