This castle was chosen purely as it was a convenient stop between other sites on our Battle of the Bulge tour. I am actually really glad we visited La Roche en Ardennes Castle as it was a very impressive fortification. The town was also very pleasant to walk around and had some particularly nice cake shops!
Visiting
We parked in the town centre near a Sherman tank and took the well signposted route to the castle. There was a small ticket office part way up the entrance ramp and we proceeded into the castle.
My Experience
My notes in the blog for this visit are:
“We continued our trip along more very minor roads until we reached La Roche en Ardennes, a pretty little town in a valley. We eventually parked with excellent reversing instructions from Steve (the minibus didn’t even have a reversing camera! Unheard of!) and headed off for lunch. This continued the health theme with butter soaked mushrooms on butter soaked bread. It did give me plenty of energy for the climb up the hill to the castle though.
Mum demonstrated her grasp of European geography by greeting the ticket attendant in Spanish. The castle is a strange flint construction and obviously lots of work has gone into it to level the site from the craggy outcrop it is built on. There are plenty of information boards and the map you get at the entrance is excellent and includes a suggested route. There are very impressive views from the ramparts of the castle.”
La Roche en Ardennes Castle is not a pretty building. It was built from rough rock and the interior ground surface was craggy and unfinished, it can’t have been easy grouping troops up inside. The castle is on a hill and commands the surrounding area but not for very far as the whole area is surrounded by equally high wooded hills.
There are several rooms inside but they are totally unadorned and there was limited explanations on the information boards. Outside there are benches to sit and have a coffee.
Photo Gallery
History
The castle website is here and it gives this history of the castle:
“Built on the ruins of a Roman fortified camp, the first chateau was constructed here in the 9th century and for the next five hundred years, curtain walls, towers and bastions were added by successive local rulers as the strategic location on the River Ourthe became more vital for defence against invading armies.
Louis XIV employed a student of Vauban to add the finishing touches in the early 18th century but the chateau was largely demolished in the late 18th century on the orders of the Hapsburgs.
Massive allied bombing raids in 1944 added to its destruction, but today, the ruins with sweeping views over the wooded valley of the Ourthe and the pretty little town of La Roche-en-Ardenne are still a fine example of the changing styles of military architecture spanning more than 600 years.”
References
The Wikipedia page with more detailed history is here.