Château des Bories

English translation

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History

A repaire existed in the 15th century, traces of which have been discovered. The present castle was begun in 1497. It is said to have been completed in 1604 by Henri de Saint-Astier, a Protestant who in 1592 was witness to its capture by the Catholics. In 1652, the Fronde invested the castle. At the Revolution, the castle was designated for demolition, but only the walls of the fortified courtyard were razed, and the moats filled in. The castle presents a long rectangular dwelling, flanked by two large round towers and a square tower containing a monumental staircase. A corner turret adorns the south-east angle, and a turret containing the spiral staircase leading to the roof space extends the square staircase. The dwelling has preserved its defensive apparatus: towers with machicolations, moats, drawbridge, fortified courtyard. The whole, three storeys high, is built over vaulted cellars. The staircase appears to be the prototype of the monumental staircases à la française which would develop in the 17th century. The guards' hall is covered by a vault composed of a central column from which four ribs spring and fall into the angles. These ribs, themselves joined by four curvilinear liernes, evoke the complicated vaults of churches of the late Gothic period.