The French Castle is truly an impressive edifice. This building was the original fort: When the Seneca Indians agreed to allow the French to build a settlement at the spot where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario in the 1720's, it was with the stipulation that this would be a settlement, and not a fort. No problem, agreed the French, who built the Maison a Machicoulis, House of Peace, in 1726, which was absolutely a fort in the shape of a huge house. This is it's main entry foyer.