Château de Coucy

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Chateau of Coucy, watercolor, ca 1820 (Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris)

The Château de Coucy is a French castle in the commune of Coucy-le-Château-Auffrique, in the département of Aisne, built in the 13th century and renovated by Viollet-le-Duc in the 19th. In 1917, the German army dynamited the keep and the four towers using 28 tons of explosives.

During its heyday it was famous for the size of its central tower and the pride of its lords, who adopted the rhyme: "Roi ne suis, ne Prince ne Duc ne Comte aussi; Je suis le sire de Coucy" ("I am not a King, nor Prince nor Duke nor Count; I am the Lord of Coucy").

The castle was constructed in the 1220s by Enguerrand III de Coucy. Its donjon (keep) 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.

One of its lords, Enguerrand VII de Coucy (1340 - 1397) is the subject of historian Barbara Tuchman's study of the Middle Ages, A Distant Mirror. It also features extensively in British author Anthony Price's 1982 crime/espionage novel The Old Vengeful.

Château de Coucy is classified as one of the Monuments Nationaux (National Monuments). It has been listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture since 1862.