Château de Béguin

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château de Béguin stands in the commune of Lurcy-Lévis, in the Allier department. A 15th-century tower, the oldest surviving part, belonged to a manor held by the Béguin family, one of whose members, Dom Pierre, was prior in 1489. In 1504, after the murder of the lord of Béguin, the estate passed to the Lévis family; following an interlude under the Villars family, it returned to them in 1647. In 1834 it was bought by the Thuret family, an old Huguenot lineage that had taken refuge for a time in the Netherlands after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and which already owned the neighbouring Château de Lévis. It later belonged to Henri Thuret (1811-1871), known as Henry II in the family genealogy, brother of the botanist Gustave Thuret and a member of the Lurcy municipal council, who had married Louise Fould, niece of the minister Achille Fould, in 1851; it then passed to their son Daniel Thuret (1854-1909), who died at Lurcy-Lévis. During the 19th century the original fortified house received a large brick-and-stone extension that gives it its present appearance: a main block of two storeys plus an attic level, fronted by a flight of steps, and a facade enlivened by three unequal pavilions, one of which projects forward with a monumental entrance. Today the Château de Béguin is a private estate hosting receptions, weddings and seminars; it served as the setting for the German and Dutch versions of the TV game show 'The Traitors' ('Die Verräter', 'De Verraders').