Sillé-le-Guillaume Castle

Sillé-le-Guillaume Castle, locally known as Château de Sillé-le-Guillaume, lies in the town of the same name in the Sarthe department in France.

Sillé-le-Guillaume Castle was first mentioned in 1070 and was probably built earlier that century by Guillaume de Sillé, a vassal of the Counts of Maine. The stronghold, located on the border of the county and thus being close to its rivals Brittany and Normandy, was the scene of many battles, including a siege by William the Conqueror.

In the Hundred Years' War during the 14th and 15th centuries, the English army attacked and held the castle several times. Damaged because of the repeated sieges by the English and the French, the Baron de Sillé started to strengthen the castle in 1463. The keep dates back to that building campaign. These works, however, were made redundant by the arrival of gunpowder, after which the castle started to lose its military importance.

During the 16th and 17th centuries works were carried out to transform Sillé-le-Guillaume Castle into a more comfortable residence. In 1804 it was acquired by the municipality and turned into a high school.

The castle was built on a hillside, from where it dominated the valley below. It has a rectangular ground plan with a D-shaped keep, 2 round corner towers and a twin-towered gate building from which only one tower has survived. The gate was accessed through an oval-shaped bailey. At present the gate doesn't serve as an entrance anymore, instead the entrance is through a large door in the outer wall of a former residential wing. Next to the castle stands the town church, which started out as the old seigniorial chapel of the barons of Sillé.

Sillé-le-Guillaume Castle is now a small local museum which can be visited for a small fee. A very nice castle in a quiet rural town.

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