Guise: Godin's Social Palace and the Dukes' Fortress
Hauts-de-France, France
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Familistère Worker
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225
XP
+100 France
= 325 total
1 day
Guise: Godin's Social Palace and the Dukes' Fortress
225 + 100 XP
Jean-Baptiste André Godin, who patented his cast-iron stove in 1840 and moved his works to Guise in 1846, began building the Familistère there in 1859 to give his workers what he called « les équivalents de la richesse » — the comfort only the middle classes could then buy. Around the Palais social he put co-operative shops, mixed schools compulsory to fourteen at a time when the law let children work from ten, a library, a theatre that held a thousand people, a nursery, and a laundry, baths and swimming pool across the Oise beside the factory. Across the town, the château fort of Guise, attested from the 10th century, was turned in 1538 into one of the most modern citadels in France, one of the first with bastions, and still keeps the counter-mine galleries cut into the thickness of its walls.
Required Activities
1
of 5
On the guided tour of the Palais social, find the three things Godin built his architecture around — light into every apartment, air moving through the courtyard, and drinking water on every floor — then go into his own apartment, which stood shut from 1968 until the restoration reopened it
2
of 5
In the schools-and-theatre building facing the central pavilion, stand in the theatre that seated a thousand in 1914 and work out how a settlement of 1,748 people in 1889 filled it, then find the schoolrooms in the same building
3
of 5
Walk the counter-mine galleries Jean de Renaud cut from 1538 for François Ier: the listening gallery inside the very thickness of the curtain wall at the bastion de l'Alouette, whose ramparts stand 48.5 m high, and the double-coffered escarp gallery of the bastion de la Haute Ville, 110 m end to end, both dug so that defenders could hear a besieger tunnelling and blow his mine first
4
of 5
Cross the Oise to the buanderie-piscine and find Godin's swimming pool: a movable floor that could be raised so children swam in shallow water, filled with water piped from the foundry next door after it had cooled the castings, arriving at exactly the right temperature
5
of 5
Stand at the foot of the keep — 24 m high today, 55 m around, its Ardennes sandstone walls 5.75 m thick — and find the work paid for between 1431 and 1440 partly out of the ransom the English paid Jean de Luxembourg for Joan of Arc
On the guided tour of the Palais social, find the three things Godin built his architecture around — light into every apartment, air moving through the courtyard, and drinking water on every floor — then go into his own apartment, which stood shut from 1968 until the restoration reopened it
In the schools-and-theatre building facing the central pavilion, stand in the theatre that seated a thousand in 1914 and work out how a settlement of 1,748 people in 1889 filled it, then find the schoolrooms in the same building
Walk the counter-mine galleries Jean de Renaud cut from 1538 for François Ier: the listening gallery inside the very thickness of the curtain wall at the bastion de l'Alouette, whose ramparts stand 48.5 m high, and the double-coffered escarp gallery of the bastion de la Haute Ville, 110 m end to end, both dug so that defenders could hear a besieger tunnelling and blow his mine first
Cross the Oise to the buanderie-piscine and find Godin's swimming pool: a movable floor that could be raised so children swam in shallow water, filled with water piped from the foundry next door after it had cooled the castings, arriving at exactly the right temperature
Stand at the foot of the keep — 24 m high today, 55 m around, its Ardennes sandstone walls 5.75 m thick — and find the work paid for between 1431 and 1440 partly out of the ransom the English paid Jean de Luxembourg for Joan of Arc
Before you go
The château fort opens 1 April to 1 November only, Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 18:00, at 8 euros full price; its guided tours run by appointment only and depend on a guide being free, so book if you want the galleries explained. The Familistère is open most of the year but closes on Mondays outside the zone B school holidays and for a fortnight in mid-January; its guided tours are at 11:30, 14:00 and 15:30 and need booking. A combined ticket for both sites costs 18 euros full price.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
225 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
325 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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