Château de Hautségur

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château de Hautségur is located in the commune of Meyras, in the Ardèche, within the Monts d'Ardèche Regional Natural Park, on a hill overlooking the Ardèche valley. Originally a simple 12th-century watchtower attached to the Château de Ventadour, the building was partially destroyed during the Wars of Religion before being rebuilt in the 16th century. The Langlade family acquired it between 1568 and 1597 through François de Langlade; his son Jean de Langlade, a Protestant lord, undertook major Renaissance-style transformations, adding two noble storeys, four bartizans and a large tower. In 1752 the château was sold to Jean Neyrand, a doctor of law, whose descendants kept it until 1892. After several changes of ownership, it was reunited in 2012 under the ownership of Patricia Demangeon, who has led its restoration since 2011 with the support of the Fondation du patrimoine. The building consists of a square central block flanked by a round tower to the west and a stair turret. The ground floor houses a vaulted hall of about 100 m², a former men's hall (salle d'hommes) later turned into a kitchen. The remarkably well-preserved spiral staircase ends in an "umbrella" or palm motif. The château retains Renaissance fireplaces and a doorway decorated with a Latin inscription taken from Psalm 126. The towers, partially destroyed during the Wars of Religion, were later truncated during the Revolution. The Château de Hautségur has been listed (inscrit) as a historic monument by decree of 13 January 1937.