Château Dreaming

Bourgogne-Franche-Comté · Doubs, France

Château de Joux

A fortress stacked on a Jura crag above the cluse de Pontarlier, guarding the road to Switzerland for a thousand years. Vauban modernised it; its cells held Mirabeau — and Toussaint Louverture, hero of the Haitian Revolution, who died a prisoner here in the mountain cold of April 1803.

Château de Joux
Photo: The original uploader was Calips at French Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 1.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

At a glance

Built
11th century onwards; Vauban works 17th c.
Style
Mountain fortress of five enclosures
Commissioned by
Lords of Joux; Vauban for Louis XIV
Signature feature
Five successive enclosures climbing a Jura crag
Toussaint Louverture
The Haitian revolutionary died imprisoned here, 1803
Other captives
Mirabeau, held by his father's lettre de cachet
Legend
The grim tale of Berthe de Joux belongs to its oldest walls
Visiting
Open to visitors (seasonal calendar)