Château de Pierrefonds

The Chateau de Pierrefonds is where the television series Merlin is filmed. It is a castle situated in the commune of Pierrefonds in the Oise département of France. It is on the south-east edge of the Forest of  Compiégne, north-east of Paris.

The Chateau de Pierrefonds includes most of the characteristics of defensive military architecture from the Middle Ages, though it underwent a major restoration in the 19th Century.

History
In the 12th Century, a castle was built on this site. Two centuries later, in 1392, the king Charles VI turned the County of Valois (of which Pierrefonds was part) into a Duchy and gave it to his brother Louis, Duke of Orléans. From 1393 to his death in 1407, the latter had the castle rebuilt by the court architect, Jean le Noir.

In March 1617, during the early troubled days of Louis XIII's reign, the castle, then the property of Francois-Annibal d'Estrées. who joined the parti des mécontents (party of malcontents) led by Henri II, Prince of Condé, was beseiged and taken by troops sent by Richelieu, the secretary if state for war. Its demolition was started, but not carried through to the end because of the enormity of the task. The exterior works were razed, the roofs destroyed and holes made in the towers and curtain walls.

The castle remained a ruin for more than two centuries. Napoleon I bought it in 1810 for less than 3000 francs, During the 19th Century, with the rediscovery of the architectural heritage of the Middle Ages, it became a romantic ruin. In August 1832, Louis-Philippe gave a banquet there on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter Louise to Léopld de Saxe-Cobourg Gotha, first king of Belgium, Among other artists, Corot depicted the ruins in several works between 1834 and 1866. The Chateau de Pierrefonds has been classifie as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture since 1848.

Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (later Napoleon III of France) visited the castle in 1850. As emperor, he asked Viollet-le-Duc in 1857 to undertake its restoration, continuators are Maurice Ouadou and Juste Lisch untiil 1885. There was no question of a simple repair to the habitable parts (the keep and the annexes) the picturesque ruins in front were to be kept for decor. In 1861, the project grew in scale, the sovereign wanted to create an imperial residence, so the castle was to be entirely rebuilt. The works, which would cost 5 million francs, of which 4 million were to come from the civil list, were stopped in 1885, six years after the death of viollet-le-Duc. The departure of Napoleon III had halted the reconstruction and, through lack of money, the decoration of rooms was unfinished. Inside, Viollet-le-Duc produced more a work of invention that restoration. He imagined how the castle ought to have been, rather than basing his work on the strict history of the building. On the other hand, with the exterior he showed an excellent knowledge of the military architecture from the 14th Century.

Chateau de Pierrefonds in media
The castle has often been used as a location for filming, including, les Visiteurs, Highlander: The Series, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc and the 1998 version of The Man in the Iron Mask. The castle serves as Camelot for the BBC series Merlin, and a cut scene of the castle was used to portray Wiz Tech Academy in Disney's TV series, Wizards of Waverly Place.