Château-Musée de Dieppe
Perched on the white chalk cliffs above the harbour, Dieppe's 15th-century castle is one of the best-preserved medieval fortresses in Normandy. Inside, a world-class collection of carved ivory — unique to Dieppe's seafaring craftsmen — tells the story of a town that once traded with the ends of the earth.
A fortress built for kings
The château was built between 1435 and 1450 and later reinforced by Vauban, Louis XIV's master military engineer. Its thick flint-and-limestone walls have survived English bombardments, Revolution and two World Wars, and today they frame sweeping views over the port and the English Channel.
Inside, 23 rooms trace Dieppe's maritime golden age. Look for the intricate ivory triptychs and model ships carved by local artisans in the 17th and 18th centuries — a craft so prized that Dieppe became known as the 'ivory capital of Europe'.
The Dufy room and beyond
The museum dedicates a whole gallery to Raoul Dufy, the Fauve and Cubist painter who spent formative summers in Dieppe. His bright, loose canvases of the seafront and regatta are a visual love letter to the town.
Don't miss the collection of antique navigational instruments and the scale model of Dieppe as it looked before the 1694 Anglo-Dutch bombardment that levelled much of the medieval city.
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