Château de Mauras

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château de Mauras overlooks the valley of the Payère, in the commune of Chomérac, in the Ardèche. Archaeological remains (tegulae, amphorae, oil lamps) attest to a Gallo-Roman occupation of the site, probably that of a villa. The castle itself was built in the 11th–12th centuries by the Cheylus family, of Italian origin, who established a castrum there with a small square keep, built of basalt stone quarried from the nearby Payre. In 1578, the architect Loys Chasal remodelled the interior of the castle in the Italian manner, replacing the medieval courtyard with a staircase serving several floors of Renaissance-style state rooms. Held by the Huguenot baron Alexandre Bénéfice de Cheyllus, the castle was taken, looted and partly destroyed by the royal troops of the Duke of Montmorency during the siege of 10 to 16 May 1628, during the Wars of Religion. The building today consists of a central quadrangular main block flanked by four round corner towers (tour du Comte, tour du Juge, tour des Demoiselles, tour des Chevaliers), the northern towers retaining an internal diameter of about 9 metres. Acquired by the present family in 1967, it has since been restored and run as a private property offering guest rooms and a gîte (holiday cottage).