Château de Verchères

English translation

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History

Castle mentioned in 1591. It was sold in 1770, then in 1821 to the Demoiselles de l'Instruction who installed there a school with classrooms and dormitories. Until 1904, the building was called the "château des Dames". After that date, it was used as a girls' school until 1929, then transformed into a parish hall. From 1935, holiday colonies of various parishes used it periodically until 1962. The building presents a square main dwelling, flanked on the south-west angle by a circular stair tower three-quarters projecting. A few rare openings are located, for the most part, on the south facade, with door with tympanum struck with a coat of arms, windows with splayed jambs, with stone traverse or wooden cross-mullion. The vertical flanking of the entrance door is ensured by a bretèche in overhang on corbels, in the angle formed by the stair tower and the wall of the main dwelling. It offers the particularity of having a convex face, following the line of the tower to which it is attached. A room on the first floor, with a ceiling of beams, preserves a monumental stone fireplace with mantel and moulded jambs on prismatic bases. This maison-forte is typical of a line of constructions dating back, for the most part, to the Wars of Religion.