En un regard
Le château en bref
The Château de Magnat stands in Magnat-l'Étrange, in the Creuse department. Built in the 12th century on Gallo-Roman remains by the crusading family of the lords of Ma(i)gnac, later united with the Montvert and Lestrange families, it was enlarged in the 17th century by the Count of l'Estrange. Its lords are said to have included an ancestor in the sixth degree of the aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. After the French Revolution it suffered abandonment, looting and subdivision until 1965, serving in turn as notarial offices, as an infirmary during the First World War, and then as a textile and agricultural warehouse. Listed as a historic monument (inscrit) since 1943, it has been undergoing restoration since 2012 as a volunteer worksite organised by the Association du Château de Magnat, bringing together stonemasons, masons, woodcutters, carpenters, blacksmiths, earthworkers and joiners, with tourism, educational, vocational training and local community goals.