A little history of Cons-la-Granville castle
And also
The tops
A proud stronghold
Dudon de Cons raised here a primitive stronghold in the 11th century. Land fell to Custine family in 1560... Martin de Custine reraised the castle in 1572, a building site went on by his son Louis...
These chaps didn’t spare their money! They added towers on corners and huge Renaissance windows.
Then Cons fell to Jean de Lambertye, governor of Longwy, when he married Margaret de Custine in 1641.
Meanwhile, the Swedish troops damaged our castle during the 30 Years war! They had to reraise main buildings.
Transformations
Between 1719 and 1734, Cons was transformed. Nicolas de Lambertye rebuilt stables, then 10 years later the main building. In order to close their courtyard, he added detached houses.
He refit out apartments. Phew!... The building site ended just before the Revolution...
Do you know what? Lambertye family still owns the castle. They restored it in the 20th century and nowadays the castle houses a musical festival. The owner even reinstituted an old celebration, called fête de la Harouille! What’s this?
A festival founded in the 14th century where lords of Cons used to give "herrings" (Harouille) to poor people... but people started to come in a body, to eat fishes...
What a mess, I can tell you! So they were forced to annul this show in the 17th century.