Tour du Breuil

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Tour du Breuil, in Dignac, overlooks the springs and the wooded upper valley of the Échelle. Its dating remains debated: some historians place it towards the end of the 14th century, between 1360 and 1372, in the midst of the Hundred Years' War, while an examination of its construction type would rather suggest a 17th-century date. The rectangular tower, measuring 12 x 9 metres and 20 metres high, with walls 1.80 m thick at their base, was surrounded by moats and reached by a drawbridge; it retains machicolations, crenellations and arrow slits, as well as an adjoining chapel with partially preserved frescoes. Owned by the Raymond family in the 17th century and then by Jean Le Roy de Lenchères, governor of Corte, in the 18th century, it has belonged since 1845 to the des Roches de Chassay family, then, through the female line, to the de Villemandy de La Mesnière family for more than two centuries. The keep and the chapel are listed in the supplementary inventory of historic monuments. A private family residence, the tower is not open to visitors.