Castles in Townscapes: Studying Fortified Medieval Towns and their Environments in Eure-et-Loir (France)

ABSTRACT

In the north of France, fortified towns and their castles have made a strong environmental impact since the eleventh century or earlier. This paper describes recent research that has begun to analyse the environmental impact of fortified towns during the medieval period, specifically between the eighth and the sixteenth centuries. The focus is on the place of fortifications within the townscape and the link between town and country, particularly through various forms of artificialisation – human modification – of the hydrological system. The case study area south-west of Paris, containing 33 medieval defended towns, was the location of conflicts on the borders of the French royal domain during this period. In many towns, defensive walls and moats can still be seen, and good preservation of the town plan and limited urban development since the nineteenth century has enabled environmental data to be obtained from ditches and rivers, while historical maps, excavations and archival studies, supported by some geophysical survey, has facilitated more detailed analyses.

KEYWORDS:

• Fortifications
• river
• peat
• moat
• town walls

Acknowledgments

The authors would especially like to thank M. Vié, J.-P. Detournay and J.-P. Duc who respectively have been working on Gallardon, Nogent-le-Roi and Épernon.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Quentin Borderie is a researcher in geoarchaeology in the CNRS-UMR 7041 ‘Archéologies Environnementales’ He works on cultural layers in Western Europe and on archaeological site formation processes in particular using soil micromorphology, phytolith analysis and geochemistry. He published ‘Dark Earth in the Geoarchaeological Approach to Urban Contexts’ (CNRS 2014) and ‘Early Middle Ages Houses of Gien (France) from the Inside: Geoarchaeology and Archaeobotany of 9th–11th c. Floors’ (Environmental Archaeology 2018).

Vincent Acheré is a field archaeologist working in the Direction de l'archéologie de Chartres Métropole and in CNRS-UMR 7324 ‘Architecture et technique de construction’. He specialises in the medieval and modern past in Northern France. He published ‘Evolution of the Barbican of Porte Guillaume’ in Fort, The International Journal of Fortification and Military Architecture, 2016.

Thomas Lecroère is a field archaeologist working in the Direction de l'archéologie de Chartres Métropole and in the CNRS-UMR 7324 ‘Architecture et technique de construction’. He specialises in the medieval and modern period in France. He published ‘L'enceinte urbaine de Niort’ in 2006.

Olivier Labat is a Researcher in the Institut National du Patrimoine. He is a field archaeologist specialised in medieval and modern periods in the North of France.

François Capron is a field archaeologist in INRAP (the Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives) and a researcher in the field of medieval and modern urban archaeology.

Anaïs Pinhède is a field archaeologist and a geomatician in the Archaeological Department of Chartres metropole, and a member of the CNRS-UMR 7041 ‘Archéologies environnementales’. She is a researcher in the field of urban archaeology.

Antoine Louis is a topographer and designer in the Conseil départemental d'Eure-et-Loir, studying architecture and 3D modelling, and a member of CNRS-UMR 3155 Institut de recherche en architecture antique.

Michel Douard is the President of the Société d'Histoire et d'Archéologie du Drouais et du Thimerais, and archaeologist at the Conseil Departemental. He is a field archaeologist specialised in bibliographical research and Geographic Information Systems.