Château Médiéval de Sillé le Guillaume

Sillé-le-Guillaume, France, France

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Château Médiéval de Sillé-le-Guillaume is one of the oldest surviving medieval fortresses in France's Sarthe department in the Pays de la Loire region, built in the 11th century by Guillaume de Sillé on a hillside overlooking the Vaudelle valley near the borders of Normandy and Brittany for strategic defense.

It features massive 3.5-meter-thick walls up to 38 meters high, a prominent keep with cells and guard rooms, four cylindrical towers added in the 14th century with machicolations, and Renaissance-era habitability upgrades after enduring sieges by William the Conqueror and during the Hundred Years' War.

Owned by figures like Louis XIV's daughter and later used as a school until 1971, the now-municipal site—classified as a historical monument since 1889—stands imposingly beside a Romanesque church amid a quiet town setting, open for visits with scenic views and no heavy tourism.