The artillery cavalier
Extract from a profile of Caen Castle realized in 1800, showing the artillery terrace. Service Historique de l'Armée de Terre, Vincennes.
Powder artillery advanced in leaps and bounds during the Hundred Years War and castles lost their defensive effectiveness, the thick ramparts being no longer strong enough to withstand the impact of the cannon balls. Caen Castle was no exception and Francois de Silly, the town Bailiff from 1503, decided to strengthen the walls of the fort by building up huge mounds of earth along the ramparts, inside the castle.
In the north-west of the castle bailey, where there is a difference in height between the north side and the west side of the rampart, a banking wall was built, very possibly to make up for the obvious weakness of the defensive system at this point. This part of the rampart had in fact been badly damaged during the Hundred Years War, by heavy bombardment from an English company stationed not far from the nearby church of St Julien .
The earth slope contained by this wall and the north rampart had its top converted into a terrace on which to set up bastard culverin type cannon, many examples of which are kept at the Musée de l'Armée. These cannon were drawn onto the artillery terrace up a gently sloping ramp.
The curtain wall that was applied to the north rampart during the 15 th century, already to bolster up the construction, was at that time completely buried beneath the mound, as were the doors leading to the firing chambers in the towers.
As part of the project to renovate and enhance Caen Castle , the artillery terrace, having suffered the ravages of time and the succession of works, is to be restored to the way it looked in the 16 th century, and the possibility of setting up the cannon is currently being looked into.
The installation of temporary exhibition rooms inside the slope will make it possible to step back far enough to take a good look at the mediaeval wall, the curtain and the tower access doors as they were in the 15 th century, before the artillery terrace was built.
the castle approaches 
