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:
-
Listening to the sea
-
International Geodiversity Day
-
Edinburgh Castle, Scotland
-
Tambopata National Reserve, Peru
-
Moving as one
-
Cheetah mother and cub
-
Stuben am Arlberg, Austria
-
China s colorful terraced pools
-
Thorrablot: The Icelandic midwinter festival
-
Lei Day
-
Just a couple of yellow-billed hornbills
-
Waimea Canyon and Waipoo Falls, Kauai, Hawaii
-
Carnival comes to Olinda
-
Astoria-Megler Bridge, Oregon
-
Celebrate International Women’s Day
-
Giving Tuesday
-
A young jaguar on a riverbank, Pantanal, Brazil
-
Strolling across the Red Lagoon
-
Fire-damaged forest near Wolf Creek Pass, Colorado
-
Mod gear
-
Belgium celebrates its independence
-
Rays on parade
-
Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch on the institution s 175th anniversary
-
First Cliff Walk
-
Happy Birthday, J.R.R. Tolkien!
-
Great hornbill, Thailand
-
Rapa Nui National Park, Easter Island, Chile
-
Dreaming of the Tyrrhenian Sea
-
What s going on in this sky?
-
A giant relic in Java