Château de Rabaud

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château de Rabaud is a rural fortified manor house, square in plan, with bartizans and a main tower, built on the outskirts of Masseret in Corrèze. This type of fortified manor house proliferated throughout the Kingdom of France, from the Middle Ages to the early Renaissance, close to market towns and distinct from the castra (a fortress built on the natural oppidum site of Masseret, which watched over the surrounding area until the 18th century, and a medieval feudal motte still visible near the Porte de la Corrèze motorway service area, a few hundred metres from the manor). For this reason, Rabaud is described as a ‘repaire’, ‘repayrium’, the regional term for fortified houses, as in Périgord. Indeed, the repaire of Rabaud belongs to a period favourable to the construction of châteaux and manor houses in Limousin. An article written more than 20 years ago in issue 159 of the VMF (Vieilles Maisons Françaises) journal explains that ‘from the end of the Hundred Years’ War until the Wars of Religion, Limousin enjoyed a century of peace. The aristocracy took advantage of these peaceful times to build: in Corrèze there is a whole series of châteaux and manor houses built in the second half of the 15th century, and a few in the first half of the 16th century’. These constructions feature stair towers on the main façade, rising from a quadrilateral structure, and bartizans.