En un regard
Le château en bref
The Château de Montausier was a fortified castle that stood in the parish of Sainte-Radegonde, now Baignes-Sainte-Radegonde in Charente. Before its destruction in 1793, it was one of the residences of the Sainte-Maure family and the seat of the duchy-peerage of Montausier, created in 1665. Charles de Sainte-Maure was born there in 1610.
The Château de Montausier was seized and then destroyed during the Revolution; what remains today is a broad tower, the Tour de Montausier, sometimes called the keep, and a vaulted fountain, the Font-Madame.
A small castle-style house, known as the manoir de l'abbé Michon after its builder and architect, Abbé Michon, the inventor of graphology, stands about thirty metres west of the Tour de Montausier and about a hundred metres south of the place called le Château. According to some, the house stands near the remains of the Château de Montausier; according to others, on the very site of the former remains.
The manor was built between 1871 and 1879. Given its geographical proximity to the "Tour de Montausier" and its 19th-century architecture with two crenellated towers evoking medieval fortifications, it may have been taken for the former castle. In 1878, in his work on graphology, its builder himself referred to it as the Château de Montausier, as some sources still do today. However, specialist heritage sources distinguish the Château de Montausier from the manoir de l'abbé Michon.
