The castle was constructed in the 1220s by
Enguerrand III, Lord of Coucy. The castle proper occupies the tip of a bluff or
falaise. It forms an irregular trapezoid of 92 x 35 × 50 × 80 m. At the four corners are cylindrical towers 20 m in diameter (originally 40 m in height). Between two towers on the line of approach was the massive
donjon (
keep). The donjon was the largest in Europe, measuring 35 meters wide and 55 meters tall. The smaller towers surrounding the court were as big as the donjons being built at that time by the French monarchy. The rest of the bluff is covered by the lower court of the castle, and the small town. Coucy was occupied in September 1914 by German troops during World War I. It became a military outpost and was frequented by German dignitaries, including
Emperor Wilhelm II himself. In March 1917 the retreating German army, on order of General
Erich Ludendorff, destroyed the keep and the 4 towers. It is not known whether this act had some military purpose or was merely an act of wanton destruction. The destruction caused so much public outrage that in April 1917 the ruins were declared "a memorial to barbarity". War reparations were used to clear the towers and to consolidate the walls but the ruins of the keep were left in place. One of its lords,
Enguerrand VII (1340–1397), is the subject of historian
Barbara Tuchman's study of the fourteenth century
A Distant Mirror. It also features extensively in British author
Anthony Price's 1982 crime–
espionage novel The Old Vengeful. Château de Coucy has been listed as a
monument historique by the
French Ministry of Culture since 1862, and is managed by the
Centre des monuments nationaux. == Gallery ==