Opis:

Set at the edge of a small village in the commune of Chaillac, this is one of the most impressive buildings I have ever had the pleasure to view

Built after the 100 Years War in France and is one of many small castles that were built for the lower French nobility at the time, whose job it was to defend the peasants and farmers who looked after the grounds. The lord's role was to protect the people and because of the many marauding bandits that laid waste to the land after the war, people needed protection. Although there is no conclusive proof, the current owner feels that the manor house was built on or around 1480 and the style is totally aligned with that thinking.

You can see from the interior walls, that there were several modifications that were brought to the house with time, in particular that of making the access to the house from tower much stronger and more defendable.

In the 18th century, a French Baron of the Empire under Napoleon was born and served him in his wars. He then became a famous writer who wrote various books on herbology and plants in general, including farming etc. His name was Jean-Baptiste Rougier de la Bergerie. It is said that the Rougiers were quite poor, despite their nobility. Before that the building used to belong to the estate of Lord de Biencourt.

The remaining colours that can be found on parts of the walls on the first and second floors are all original and after some investigation the owner is certain that the ones on the 2nd floor are from the time when the place was built. A fleur de lys can be seen on the 2nd floor and is one of the best preserved paintings. The best one however is the one on the 1st floor, were much of the original colour can be seen around one of the windows. I am less certain of the dating and this would require archaeological experts to be able to tell us a real date. The most interesting painting of all is however, in my opinion, the portraits over the fireplace on the 1st floor. The lady is still visible, but the man's face has been painted over, just as if he had done something so awful they wanted to get rid of his picture.... Wouldn't you love to know what is behind that story?

Later, a famous French writer, Stendhal, is said to have stayed at the place also and visited a friend of his, possibly one of the daughters of Jean-Baptiste Rouger.

Geographically the place has changed quite a bit. The manor house itself used to stand on its own and had no immediate other building adjoined to it. It had a much smaller shack (the size of the one that is at the entrance) in the back near the tower and had a long, perpendicular, building on its right hand. This was probably the building for the horses, hay and general farming tools. The moat, of which a section is still visible to this day, used to go all around the building, leaving only an opening to access the house from the front where the former main entrance to the manor house used to be.

The current owner of the castle has studied old plans and this is how he found out what the castle looked like in 1835. We now know therefore that the barn that is adjoined to the manor house was built many years after 1835, probably using stones from the other houses that may have been in ruin.

The town of Chaillac is only 8 minutes drive from the castle and has all the amenities needed for everyday living. Ideally situated for sightseeing in the exceptionally beautiful area around the Brenne National Park.

Poitiers airport and train station are about one and a half hours away, Limoges airport is one hour's drive.

The current owner has been renovating the castle over the past 10 years and has kept the heart of the castle virtually intact, as he did not plan on putting anything modern in this section to distract from authenticity and integrity of its history. All of these rooms remain in their original size and once completed he envisaged that all you would see from a modern aspect would be the lighting. The heating he has planned for would be under the floor as he felt that adding radiators would again detract from its historical beauty.

The addition/barn section was a much later addition as indicated above and in this area he envisaged all modern amenities.

The castle offers over 400 sq meters of living space, and has all water pipes connected to the village mains.

The private land surrounding the castle still has in one area part of the moat, also towards the end of the land is a small pond (650m2), together with a hangar and a little building which would make a very pretty hen house or play house, once renovated.

Summary

Land - 14790m2

Castle - 400m2

Hangar 16 x 21m

Outbuilding - 20m2

Pond - 650m2