France · Restored
Villers-Cotterêts Castle
The Château de Villers-Cotterêts is a historic French château in Villers-Cotterêts, Aisne, originally built for Francis I and associated with the 1539 Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts. It is state property and a listed historic monument that has been restored and repurposed in the 21st century as the Cité internationale de la langue française.
Its prime
1539
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1539
What Villers-Cotterêts Castle looked like in its prime.
Symmetrical three-storey limestone façade under a high slate mansard roof punctured by five pedimented dormer windows (central dormer with a clock), a wide central arched entrance beneath a second-floor stone balcony with a low metal balustrade, rows of tall, narrow mullioned windows framed by pilasters, and a prominent tall brick chimney to the left. The château faces a cobbled forecourt planted with pollarded trees and sits on the edge of the Forest of Retz.
Its story
The story of Villers-Cotterêts Castle.
The château at Villers-Cotterêts, some 80 kilometres north-east of Paris in the Aisne, was originally built for Francis I and is associated with the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts of 1539. In 1661 Louis XIV granted the castle to his brother Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, and it remained with the House of Orléans until the Revolution; in 1787 Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans was exiled here over his opposition to the May Edicts.
A state property, the château has been listed as a historic monument since 1997. Restored and repurposed in the 21st century, it now houses the Cité internationale de la langue française — giving the building originally raised for Francis I, in the town of Villers-Cotterêts in Hauts-de-France, a new public role.
Step inside
6 places to explore in 1539.
The record describes 6 distinct spots at Villers-Cotterêts Castle — including the full exterior approach. 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 Villers-Cotterêts Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1539 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Whose castle
Clans who held Villers-Cotterêts Castle.
The families that held Villers-Cotterêts Castle for a decade or more across its history — follow a name to its clan.
Orléans
Granted by Louis XIV to his brother Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, in 1661; held by the House of Orléans until the Revolution.
