castle of Montreuil-Bellay This folder is available in parallel with
Montreuil-Bellay, walled city of Anjou. (See the "Plan of the blog).
Photos Jacques Sigot, unless otherwise stated. Click on documents to enlarge.
Castle by day from the sky.
night, the left bank of Thouet flowing at its foot. visit the castle of Montreuil-Bellay, although it would be fairer, as we shall see, to write
castles of Montreuil-Bellay. Previously, we should remember that its first builder, Fulk Nerra, has not built on a Gallo-Roman site as it is sometimes said. No trace of such a habitat has never been updated, and we know that the Romans preferred to settle along a line further east, not from Bron and Antoigné, rather than the irregular edge of a knoll overlooking the river Thouet.
Coots has not built the keep lord at the end of the mound where he could have monitored the plain of Poitou, but nearby a ford and a small church located at the crossroads of two major thoroughfares in order to protect them. A line of Gothic bridges parallel to the ford replaced the ford in the fifteenth century and ended at the foot of the fortress (0 terms). The book has collapsed several times, finally in 1577. See
The Thouet Montreuil-Bellay in the plane of the blog, chapter 1.
Nothing remains of the first fortification of the first decades of the eleventh century that a long siege between Geoffrey the Fair, said Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, Giraud Berlay, impetuous lord of Montreuil, completely destroyed in retaliation in 1151. Unless the curvilinear shape of the chamber does not retain the current route of the moat so ...
map below borrowed from the acts of Congress archaeological Anjou 1964 (page 414). I added a few tracks and captions.
Legends illustrated in the diagram above
1 - fortified - curtains and towers - remains of the castle built in the early thirteenth century by William IV Viscount of Melun and Earl Tancarville, lord of Montreuil-Bellay, Anjou after was attached to France by Philippe Auguste in 1205. The Capetian build curtains straight and cylindrical towers when the curtains of their predecessors were curvilinear towers and a square or oblong.
1a - 1b-1c: Parts castles maintain the construction of the thirteenth century.
1a: Captaincy , gateway to the medieval fortress.
1b: Exterior southeast with, on the left, two huge towers very close almost blind.
1c: North side of the Chateau Neuf which were subsequently open many windows.
Staves dry and steady slope down to river level.
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2 - dominating the Thouet Courtine, where it is the highest. It is built in typical small device of the thirteenth century. The turrets were probably originally covered with wooden hoardings as we can see below in the drawing Gaignières (1699).
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3 - Remains of the old keep of the fortress Capetian thirteenth century. This dungeon is still visible on a drawing Gaignières 1699.
One of my correspondents, fascinated by medieval fortifications, sent me a picture of this dungeon that you see thus partly in the design of Gaignières, which was razed in 1808.
During a recent visit to the castle in April 2010, I realized that the remains of the base of the tower that had been identified have disappeared from view for security reasons.
What we see today:
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4 - The castle kitchen. the Middle Ages, the kitchen was a separate building to prevent possible fire. That of the castle of Montreuil-Bellay, leaning against the curtain, is quite remarkable that Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, which date from the late fourteenth century, taking as an example in his
Dictionary of French Architecture which is extracted from the drawing below (section parallel to the front of the photo below).
It is central hearth. Its high roof is in three parts. One of the inputs was protected by a canopy that can be seen in the drawing. It is also noticed in the latter one of two fireplaces mantle subsequently built on the side walls, and photograph the two high brick conduits.
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5 - The Barbican. The corbels were advanced works constructed to protect the main entrances of the fortress. They often disappeared when the castles after the end of the Hundred Years War, have become acceptable. That of Montreuil is usually dated from the fifteenth century when I was thinking earlier given the nature of the material used. It is called "open-throated", that is to say, it is not closed. Thus, the attackers who had taken would have gone directly under the fire of the assailants of the Harbour. A boulevard in height allowed men to move and shoot through the loopholes subsequently modified for the use of culverins.
Two drawbridges isolated the Barbican, one of the Place des Ormeaux, the other of the Harbour as seen in the background.
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6 -
Chateau Vieux Châtelet or is the first construction company by the family of Harcourt, who has inherit the fief in 1415. The Old Castle-based cons of Captaincy (1a) and its frontage on the high court opens many windows.
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7 - Le Petit Chateau Logis or canons of is dated 1450. It consists of four independent private homes with ground floor and first floor, each with its staircase in a turret with a half hors d'oeuvres.
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8 - The Chateau Neuf
, whose construction began around 1485 on the orders of William Harcourt is partly included in the fortress Thirteenth century (1c). This is the castle itself. He has, they say, the largest spiral staircase in France, enlightened by the six mullioned windows cruciform tower in the foreground. The renovation, arrested around 1505, are shown by Joly-Leterme érchitecte Saumur which equips the gear is left on hold and open the main entrance.
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9 - Castle College. Built by Harcourt from 1572 to replace the old chapel, it was consecrated in 1484. It became a parish church in 1810. Long of 44 m wide and 12 high of 18, she has only one nave of five bays.
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10 - Porte du Moulin, 11 - Gate Boëlle, 12 - Tour and Boëlle open new door in the wall in 1669 to divert the flow of the lower court that reserve when the lords.
For details, refer to the file
Montreuil-Bellay closed city of Anjou (address in the "Plan of the blog), blocks 7, 5 and 4.
Tower of Boëlle is built into the bed of Thouet. The Boëlle, sometimes written Boele, boiler, or Baile, originally meant a palisade of piles formed of the lists around a fortification. Then the word has gradually defined and enclosed space that became synonymous Boëlle the backyard, the court below the castle where there were common and where the villagers took refuge in an emergency.
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13 - cellars of the castle, built in the fifteenth century as an extension of the yard, were modified in the XIX.