Château des Bories, Medieval castle in Antonne-et-Trigonant, France.
Château des Bories is a medieval castle in Antonne-et-Trigonant featuring a rectangular main building with two rounded corner towers and a central square tower housing a grand internal staircase. The structure developed over more than a century with construction phases spanning the late 15th through early 17th centuries.
Construction began in 1494 for Jeanne de Hautefort, widow of Jean de Saint-Astier, on the remains of an older stronghold, and was completed in 1604 for Henri de Saint-Astier. The castle was besieged several times during the Wars of Religion and again during the Fronde, when supporters of the Fronde occupied it in 1652. Under the French Revolution it was slated for demolition, but only the courtyard walls were pulled down and the moats filled in.
The square tower's staircase is considered the prototype of the French monumental staircases that developed in the 17th century. A spiral staircase in a turret continues it up to the roofs. The château has belonged to the Lary de Latour family, and in 2023 scenes for Christopher Thompson's television series Fortune de France were filmed here.
The castle is a private property open to visitors only in July and August. It stands beside route nationale 21, under a kilometre north-east of Antonne and a few dozen metres from the Isle, which once fed its moats. The building has three storeys above vaulted cellars, reached by the square staircase tower.
A southeastern bartizan provides strategic viewing points across the surrounding landscape. A separate spiral staircase tower offers direct access to the castle's rooftop areas without passing through main interior spaces.
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