France · Restored
Donjon de Niort
The Donjon de Niort (Château de Niort) is a medieval fortress in Niort, Deux-Sèvres, notable for its two massive square keeps which are the only main remnants of a once-large enceinte. The twin donjons stand on the banks of the Sèvre Niortaise and today house municipal museum collections while remaining a classified monument historique.
First raised
1200
Its prime
1200
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1200
What Donjon de Niort looked like in its prime.
Two tall, square 12th-century stone donjons linked by the castle mass, built of pale, closely jointed limestone ashlar with crenellated tops; each keep is reinforced at the corners by circular turrets and semicircular buttresses and pierced by narrow slit windows and a few larger rectangular openings. The towers rise from a pronounced base/scarp above the riverbank, dominating the surrounding low town and the Sèvre valley; the surrounding curtain wall with multiple towers and an 8 m dry moat completed the fortress.
Its story
The story of Donjon de Niort.
The Donjon de Niort dominates the Sèvre Niortaise with two massive square keeps, the only surviving parts of a castle begun by Henry II Plantagenet and completed by Richard the Lionheart. The southern keep rises 28 metres, both flanked by circular corner turrets and semicircular buttresses, in closely jointed Romanesque masonry of high quality; the fortress once covered a vast area enclosed by a curtain wall of roughly ten towers, with a drawbridge and a dry moat eight metres deep.
At the start of the 13th century the townspeople of Niort were besieged by Poitevin lords who blocked the entrances to the town and cut off provisions. In the 15th century the space between the two towers was roofed over and turned into a lodging; the castle was damaged during the Wars of Religion, and in the 18th century served as a prison.
After the Revolution the castle was sold by the town to the district and later passed to the département. Following the first national congress of ethnology in France, held at Niort in 1896, the keep took on its present role as a museum, initially housing a collection of Poitevin costumes.
Step inside
7 places to explore in 1200.
The record describes 7 distinct spots at Donjon de Niort — including 2 interiors: great hall inside a keep, spiral staircase in a corner turret. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and walk through every one — more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Create History
Recreate Donjon de Niort with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1200 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Whose castle
Clans who held Donjon de Niort.
The families that held Donjon de Niort for a decade or more across its history — follow a name to its clan.
Begun by Henry II Plantagenet and completed by Richard the Lionheart.
