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Until the end of the first millennium, secular buildings (residential and domestic quarters) seem to have been built exclusively from non-durable materials (conical mounds of earth, wood). Around the year 1000, wood was increasingly replaced by stone for the construction of residential towers. The keep (freestanding defence tower in a castle complex) became not only a fortified building but also a symbol of power.
The fortification in Gisors was built during the last years of the eleventh century. Today only its high motte remains around which Henry I built rings of walls and crowned with a "shell-keep" in the early twelfth century. Around 1170 Henry II built an octagonal keep which provides a spectacular crowning feature for the concentric wall circles. Both the shell-keep and the keep are articulated by pier buttresses.
The photo shows the shell-keep and keep.
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