En un regard
Le château en bref
The Château de la Mothe is located in the commune of Vicq, in the Allier department. The site has been occupied since the 12th century; Guibert de Vic is mentioned there as the first known lord in 1305. Between 1449 and 1500, Bertrand and then Louis d'Arçon de Chauvigny, chamberlain to the Duke of Bourbon, had the old manor house, until then protected by wooden palisades, rebuilt in stone; Louis added a square chapel. The estate was sold in 1632 to the Montrognon de Salvert family. Claude de Montrognon, who served at the royal court between 1689 and 1705, had the château's comforts modernised. Between 1775 and 1790, François de Montrognon was equerry to Marie Antoinette. After an inspection during the French Revolution in 1792, the entrance gatehouse (châtelet) was reduced by two storeys to erase its feudal attributes. Bought and restored in 1919 by the architect Louis Imbert, the château features a stone gate tower reached by a bridge, a vaulted ground floor, upper floors covered with barrel-shaped timber roof frames, a spiral staircase housed in a square tower, and a rare external timber-framed gallery surrounding the courtyard, preserved intact. The whole ensemble, comprising the main residence and outbuildings within a single moated enclosure, has been classified (classé) as a historic monument since 13 November 1945. The château, now privately owned, hosts seminars and private events, but has no longer been open for conventional tourist visits since 2022.
