En un regard
Le château en bref
The Château de la Pastellière, in Combrand (Deux-Sèvres), built at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, illustrates the transition between medieval and Renaissance architecture. Owned by the de la Pastellière family, attested as early as 1378, it was acquired in October 1704 by Charles Durant, a cloth merchant from Bressuire who had bought the office of perpetual mayor in 1703 for 4,000 livres; his family then took the name Durant de La Pastellière. During the War in the Vendée (1793–1794), the château served as a military hospital for wounded Vendéens; General Grignon's infernal column tried unsuccessfully to burn it down in 1794. Bought by the Savary de Beauregard family in 1889, then by the Catta family in 1953 (related by marriage to the Durants), who prevented its planned demolition by developers, it was sold at auction in 2003 to the company Foncier SA. With water-filled moats, three round towers, crenellated walls, a small drawbridge and a granite entrance gateway, it retains a remarkable staircase with rib vaulting and armorial keystones. Listed (inscrit) as a historic monument in 1988, it has been undergoing since 2003 a restoration that combines modernity with respect for the historic fabric.