En un regard
Le château en bref
The Château d'Argenton, in Argentonnay (Deux-Sèvres), is an imposing defensive structure built around the year 1000. It withstood English assaults during the Hundred Years' War but was completely burned down during the Vendée Wars; only the ramparts and the Saint-Georges chapel survive today. At the end of the 15th century, its lord Philippe de Commynes, adviser on foreign affairs, regularly received King Louis XI there. The chapel houses a listed 11th-century fresco, Romanesque in style with Byzantine influences, depicting Christ in Majesty surrounded by the four Evangelists in their symbolic forms (man, lion, ox, eagle); it is considered the largest of its kind in Poitou-Charentes. The site can be visited on guided group tours organised by the association des Amis du château d'Argenton (€5 per adult).