At Domremy there was a castle built in the meadow at the angle of an island formed by two arms of the river, one of which, the eastern arm, has long since been filled up.[224] Belonging to this castle was a chapel of Our Lady, a courtyard provided with means of defence, and a large garden surrounded by a moat wide and deep.

This castle, once the dwelling of the Lords of Bourlemont, was commonly called the Fortress of the Island.

The last of the lords having died without children, his property had been inherited by his niece Jeanne de Joinville.

But soon after Jeanne d'Arc's birth she married a Lorraine baron, Henri d'Ogiviller, with whom she went to reside at the castle of Ogiviller and at the ducal court of Nancy.

Since her departure the fortress of the island had remained uninhabited.