The Castle can be visited
CastlePons
Donjon de Pons
The Donjon of Pons in the southwestern French town of Pons is a 30-meter high medieval keep and – alongside the Donjon of Niort – one of the finest examples of a Romanesque donjon in western France. The building was classified as a Monument historique in 1912.
The donjon stands on the edge of a limestone plateau above the Seugne valley; immediately adjacent is the former Château de Pons, built in 1621, which today houses the town administration.
The donjon was built in 1187 by Geoffrey III of Pons, a vassal of Richard the Lionheart. It replaced an 11th-century keep that had been destroyed by Richard the Lionheart during the suppression of a noble rebellion in Saintonge in 1179. The battlements with their corner turrets and the round-arch frieze running below them are historicist additions from 1904, added by the then Prime Minister of France and former Mayor of Pons, Émile Combes, and are modeled after the Donjon of Tonnay-Boutonne, which was destroyed in 1574 but documented in a drawing.
Architecture+
The donjon has a rectangular floor plan measuring 26.45 × 15.25 meters and is approximately 33 meters high. Its outer walls, reinforced by a total of 16 buttresses, are between 2.50 and 4.40 meters thick. The ground floor of the three-story tower served as quarters for guards and as storage for weapons, food, and water supplies, wine, etc.
On the north side is a – later added – polygonal stair tower with a stone spiral staircase (vis); originally, this access was only reachable via ladders or a wooden staircase, which could be retracted or destroyed in case of attacks. This access was exclusively reserved for the lord's family, their servants, and high-ranking visitors and leads to the 1st upper floor, which houses the over 12-meter high reception, representation, and banqueting hall (grande salle) vaulted with a pointed barrel vault, receiving daylight through large round-arch windows on the south side.
Access to the upper floor is via extremely narrow – hidden in the wall – stone spiral staircases; in the room lit by six small windows were the living and sleeping quarters of the lords of the castle – probably separated by wooden walls. From the roof of the tower, one enjoys beautiful views over the town, the Seugne valley, and the surrounding landscape.
Significance+
The Donjon of Pons is – alongside the medieval residential towers of Niort, Loudun, Loches, and Beaugency – one of the most impressive and best-preserved structures of its kind in France.
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Location: 45.5780, -0.5476