About 25 miles southwest of Rouen, on the way to Paris, the ruins of Château Gaillard still stand over the Seine River. King Richard I commissioned the castle in 1196, when England occupied portions of modern-day France. The English and French fought for control of the castle for roughly 400 years—a span including the Hundred Years War—before Henry IV of France ordered it demolished. Today, the outer walls—called baileys—are open to the public year-round, while the inner baileys are open during summer months.
A silent witness to history
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
-
Birthplace of Roman emperors
-
The Big Blue of the Sierra
-
A palace for the public
-
Yarn for Distaff Day
-
Coral Reef Awareness Week
-
Castelmezzano, Italy
-
Autumn comes to the Porcupines
-
A willowy welcome to spring
-
Keep calm and drive on (slowly)
-
An ice cap-puccino
-
New Orleans for Mardi Gras
-
Going head-to-head with winter
-
Skaftafell, Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland
-
Green sea turtle on World Oceans Day
-
The moai you know
-
Goðafoss waterfall, Iceland
-
National Park Service Founders Day
-
A red fox on the Swiss side of the Jura Mountain range
-
Wartburg Castle overlooking Thuringian Forest in Germany
-
Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act marks 42 years
-
Independence Day
-
The Sky Over Nine Columns in Venice, Italy
-
Manatees rebound
-
Bohemian Switzerland
-
Petrified Forest National Park
-
Crown Fountain by Jume Plensa at Millennium Park in Chicago
-
Remembering the Velvet Revolution
-
A learning garden
-
Greece celebrates its independence
-
Capitol Reef National Park, Utah