Château de La Barre

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château de La Barre stands in Château-sur-Allier (Allier). The lordship of La Barre is attested from the 17th century: parish registers mention Étienne Litaud as lord between 1646 and 1658, followed by his son, before the de Viry family owned the estate from 1695 to 1737. In 1789 Étienne Douyet de Villaine, a native of Le Veurdre, settled there; his descendants have kept the property to this day. An earlier manor house, predating the Revolution and already shown on the Napoleonic cadastre of 1831, had a north-east corner turret. Georges Aladane carried out renovations in 1831, then Berthe Aladane de Paraize and Alexandre de la Roche commissioned major works in 1865 and above all in 1874, giving the château its present appearance with the addition of a southern extension in brick and limestone, with corner pavilions and wings at right angles. The ensemble retains a spiral stair turret, decorated dormer windows, coats of arms carved on the pediment and wrought-iron balconies. Horse stables were built around 1900. As a private property, the château is not open to visitors.