Lusignan Castle
| Lusignan Castle | |
|---|---|
 Book of hours Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry , |
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| Alternative name (s): | Château de Lusignan |
| Creation time : | before the 12th century |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle |
| Conservation status: | Ruins |
| Standing position : | Nobles |
| Place: | Lusignan |
| Geographical location | 46 ° 26 '14 " N , 0 ° 7' 40" E |
The Château de Lusignan in Lusignan are the ruins remains of a hilltop castle . It was the ancestral seat of the House of Lusignan and probably one of the largest castles in France.
Lusignan Castle was built on a site ideal for a natural defensive structure: a narrow promontory that dominates the deep valleys on either side. It was so impressive as early as the 12th century that the legend arose that its builder must have magical powers, such as the fairy Melusine , to whom the castle is attributed as a gift for her husband Raymondin.
The castle is shown in its greatest extent, as it was in the early 15th century, in the Très Riches Heures of Duke Johann von Berry , for whom it was the preferred residence until his death in 1416: with a watchtower on the left, the Clock tower next to it and the Tour Poitevine on the right. After the Duke's death, Lusignan was briefly owned by Jean de Valois, duc de Touraine († 1417) and then by the later King Charles VII.
The place Lusignan developed below the castle gate along the slope and was later surrounded by a city wall. The castle remained a strategically important facility in Poitou . In 1574, during the Huguenot Wars , a plan of the defense system was made, which is now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. In the following century, Lusignan was modernized and reinforced again by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban , the fortress builder of Louis XIV , but then used as a prison and finally as a building for a school.
After the castle had served as a quarry for building houses in the region for a long time, the Count of Blossac finally had it demolished in the 19th century to create a leisure area for the city of Lusignan. Today there are still large parts of the foundation walls, some of them built into the steep cliff, parts of the donjon , the base of the Tour Poitevine , cisterns and cellars as well as an underground passage that probably led to the church at the time.
Web links
- Lusignan Castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- Photos from Base Mémoire