Château de Fontenoy-le-Château

In the late 10th century, around 980, the Bishops of Toul, who owned this allodial title, built a large square tower to protect their territory and to close the Valley of Côney River.

This square tower was a building of exceptional quality for this period, which was showing the power of its owners and was controlling the pathway between Burgundy and Lorraine.

Located on a sandstone rocky outcrop, at the confluence of the Côney River and the Châtelain stream, the castle was protected by the natural steepness on the majority of its sides.

The principal entry was defended by a dry ditch, the trace of which is still visible, a huge area of thorn bush also complicating the approach.

The stone facing has almost completely disappeared; the destabilized sections of wall were ruined, the terraces sold, levelled, and transformed into vegetable gardens.

The goal of this project is to restore a facing on the Square Tower to halt its deterioration and to give back "legibility" to the site.