Donjon Pons - From Below

Our last medieval blog post featured the magnificent donjon in Pons in the Charente-Maritime. We were able to show you the views from the very top of the donjon looking out for miles across the French countryside.

Today we are going back down to the bottom of the donjon and looking up. This video clip gives an idea of the size and scale of the tower. Imagine what it took to construct this back in medieval times - in 1187 in fact.

This particular donjon is now classed as one of France's historical monuments and is regarded as the best example of its type in SW France. The tower is 30m in height and its walls are between 2.5m and 4.4m thick.

Read about the magnificent donjon in Bazoges-en-Pareds.

Read more about medieval donjons.

A Magnificient Medieval Donjon

The word 'donjon' is of course French and comes from the Norman French who built many of the world's greatest medieval castles. A donjon was a formidable piece of medieval architecture - a freestanding structure, rectangular in shape and most readily identifiable to what most people think of as a castle keep. 

Built for defence, a donjon had very thick walls and an internal spiral stone staircase connecting all floors (up to four storeys high). A donjon was usually constructed inside a castle's walls but was sometimes located within the curtain wall itself. I have seen many a castle keep in medieval castles over the years, particularly in Britain but I had never seen a definitive French donjon until recently when I visited Bazoges-en-Pareds. 

It was a magnificent sight, towering above the small town and dominating the skyline for miles around. Here is a video clip which I hope will convey some of that magic.

There was also a most beautiful, medieval garden located just in front of the donjon - but that's a story for another day! In the meantime, to whet your appetite, you can take a look at my medieval garden photos here in a gallery published with permission by medieval-recipes.com.