Château de Montbrun

English translation

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History

Prehistoric remains were found at the present location of the castle. Later, three oppida occupied the heights surrounding the site. Part of an earthwork from the Carolingian period stands in the park, to the north of the castle. The present fortress was built in 1179. Only the keep is intact, a square tower of 35 metres in height, strengthened by two buttresses which link at the summit forming two round arches resting on a common corbel. This keep comprised eight storeys, the lower storey vaulted in barrel vault. The crenellations crowning the tower were restored in the 19th century. The particularity of the keep comes from its machicolations. Whereas at this period these works were set in arcades resting on buttresses, these are in corbelling. Burned and ruined by the English under the reign of Charles VI, the castle remained in disrepair until 1433, the date at which Pierre de Montbrun, bishop of Limoges, undertook its reconstruction. He preserved the keep which remained intact and enveloped it in the south-west tower of the new castle which was inhabited until the Revolution. In the year 2, the building was plundered and ravaged, then left to abandon. In 1871, it was raised from its ruins. In 1916, an accidental fire devastated the part of the castle located to the south of the central staircase.