Lucheux Castle

Lucheux Castle, locally known as Château de Lucheux, lies in the village with the same name, in the Somme department in France.

Lucheux Castle was built in 1120 by Hugh II, Count of Saint-Pol who used techniques taken back from the crusades he had been on. Situated on the border of Artois and Picardy it was one of the most important strongholds in the region. It continued to grow during the Middle Ages.

The 12th century seems to have been the heyday of the castle because it was under the reign of Saint-Louis that the Counts of Saint-Pol gained high positions within the court. Since then, attracted by the hospitality of the counts and the pleasures of hunting, numerous rulers stayed in Lucheux such as the French Kings Philip IV, Philip VI and Charles VI, Philip the Good and Charles the Bold, Dukes of Burgundy and especially King Louis XI.

Lucheux Castle suffered heavily from sieges by the English and Imperial armies in 1522 and of Burgundian forces in 1552.

Lucheux Castle was taken by the Protestants under Captain Cocqueville in 1568 during the Wars of Religion. It was sieged and taken again in 1595 during the same wars, this time by the Spanish under Hernando Teillo de Porto Carrer.

During the 17th and 18th centuries Lucheux Castle fell into decline. In 1708 it was destroyed for the last time by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, during the War of the Spanish Succession.

From 1950 until 2012 the château on the site of the bailey was used by an educational institute.

I don't know who owns the castle at present, nor what its present use is or if it can be visited. I loved the ruins.

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