Château de la Durbelière, 15th-century castle ruins in Mauléon, France.
Château de la Durbelière stands in ruins at Saint-Aubin-de-Baubigné, in Mauléon, Deux-Sèvres. Its broken walls of grey and green weathered stone rise to irregular heights; on the left a broad facade has square window openings, two lower ones holding dark wooden doors, while a taller right section contains a narrow arched window. A low terrace wall with short carved balusters runs along the base, above a grassy lawn.
The castle was built in the 15th century and suffered five separate fires during the Vendée Wars between 1793 and 1794. These destruction events left the structure in its current ruined state.
The castle's name passed by marriage from the Rorthais family, owners since 1250, to the Meulles in 1603 and then to the Vergier de la Rochejaquelein in 1679. Henri de La Rochejaquelein, born here in 1772, became a general of the Catholic and Royal Army. A model in the Saint-Aubin-de-Baubigné town hall shows the house as it stood before the fires.
The site has belonged to the commune of Mauléon since 8 September 2023 and is maintained by the association La Durbelière. The castle itself is a ruin with no marked visitor route; the moats, dovecote, enclosing walls and pond are still visible but deteriorating. A model of the castle before the fires is kept at the mairie of Saint-Aubin-de-Baubigné.
A model of the castle as it stood before the fires is kept in the town hall of Saint-Aubin-de-Baubigné, the village the castle belongs to. Legend also holds that underground passages linked the cellars to the parish church; they have since been sealed off.
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