Château de Veauce

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château de Veauce stands in the commune of Veauce, in the Allier department. A Benedictine convent occupied the site before the year 800, and a first fortress is said to have been built there around 808, during the reign of Charlemagne. The building was rebuilt in the 11th century and then remodelled in the 13th century. In 1400, Louis II of Bourbon raised the seigneury of Veauce to a barony for Robert Dauphin. After the death of the Constable Charles III of Bourbon in 1527, the castle came under the control of the Crown. Over the centuries it then belonged to the Breschard de Bressolles, Chauvigny de Blot, Timoléon de Daillon and Du Buysson families, before being held by the Cadier de Veauce family from 1700 to around 1950 — one of the oldest lineages of the Bourbonnais. Major restoration work was carried out between 1841 and 1846 by Charles de Cadier de Veauce (1820–1884), deputy for the Allier. The estate was sold in 1971 to Éphraïm Tagori de la Tour and then, after a period of decline, bought in 2002 by Elisabeth Mincer. Since 2015 it has belonged to the Calligramme endowment fund, renamed Universum in 2023, which has given it a new purpose as a cultural and tourist centre. Arranged around a main courtyard (cour d'honneur), the castle has five towers: the north-west tower, the oldest surviving part (11th century); the 13th-century watchtower, 45 metres high and built of Charroux stone; the north-east keep, known as the "tour mal-coiffée", which partly collapsed in 2006; and the clock tower, known as the "tour de Lucie", originally a 13th-century watchtower enlarged in the 1850s. The Château de Veauce is listed (classé) as a historic monument.