En un regard
Le château en bref
The Château d'Ardennes, at Fléac-sur-Seugne in Charente-Maritime, modest in its architecture, owes its renown to one of its owners, Pierre du Gua de Mons, former lord of Mons in Royan, gentleman-in-ordinary of the King's Chamber and His Majesty's lieutenant general in New France, who worked with Champlain to establish the first French settlements in North America and to found Quebec. Owner of the château from 1621 until his death in 1628, he is said to have been buried at the foot of a tree in the park. Known since the second half of the 15th century under the Ballodes family, the estate then passed to Jean Labbé (1632), to the Saint-Gelais-Lusignan family and then to the Poussard family, and was divided among heirs after 1748. A small fortress on a centralised plan flanked by buttresses and square turrets on machicolations, it retains a 13th–14th-century pointed-arch doorway and buildings forming a U around a courtyard, as well as a gate tower dated 1710 that allowed horse-drawn carriages to enter. Privately owned, the château is not open to visitors but can be seen from the outside.
