En un regard
Le château en bref
On the border of Berry and Limousin, in the commune of Chaillac, the ruins of the château de Brosse recall the cradle of a powerful viscounty. The site was occupied as early as the 10th century, and the chronicler Aimoin de Fleury mentions it around 974. The viscounts of Brosse held it until 1322, when the marriage of Jeanne de Brosse to André de Chauvigny transferred it to the Chauvignys, and then to the Bourbon-Montpensiers. Around 1369, during the Hundred Years' War, the English seneschal Guillaume de Felynton seized it and set it on fire; abandoned by its lords in the 15th century, it slowly declined. Joseph de Fougières, who bought it in 1768, had stone removed from it, and the deterioration continued into the 19th century. What survives is a 13th-century circular keep, reworked in the 15th century, a polygonal tower that probably corresponded to the residential building, a gateway without any defensive arrangement, a capped well in the lower courtyard, and stretches of walling that still outline the plan of the fortress. Listed as a monument historique on 11 March 1935, the ruins are not regularly open to visitors.
