En un regard
Le château en bref
The Château de Coulonges-sur-l'Autize (Deux-Sèvres), one of the great models of Renaissance architecture in Poitou, was built between 1522 and 1568. In 1473, King Louis XI authorised the Madaillan d'Estissac family, established in Poitou since 1429, to rebuild an earlier château that had been razed. Work began with a square pavilion; around 1540, a new architect whose name remains unknown continued the project with the east wing, then the south wing, with a chapel and an arcaded gallery, completed in 1568. Benefiting from its proximity to Fontenay-le-Comte, a major intellectual centre of the Renaissance, the château hosted the royal court in 1569, in the midst of the Wars of Religion, when it came to spend Christmas there with Charles IX, Catherine de' Medici, Henri III and Queen Margot. Looted and partly demolished in the 18th century, before the Revolution, it was acquired by the town council of Coulonges-sur-l'Autize in 1933 and has since housed the municipal services and the tourist office. Listed as a historic monument since 1994, it is open to visitors every summer; its semi-underground kitchens, which extend over half of the building in three interconnecting rooms, retain rich decoration of finely worked fireplaces and keystones depicting Medusa heads.
