Château de la Motte, Medieval castle in Lorrez-le-Bocage-Préaux, France.

Château de la Motte is a Renaissance-style moated castle in Lorrez-le-Bocage-Préaux, built of brick and light stone (brique et pierre), with some rendered sections. Its logis stands on a rectangular island in a long pond, reached by arched bridges east and west. Two wings with slate gabled roofs meet at right angles on the north and east sides, and the north wing's corners have round towers with conical roofs.

Aymard de Brisay, lord of La Motte and Lorrez, bought the seigneurie in 1480 and built the present castle at the end of the 15th century on the site of an earlier moated fortification. In the 16th and 17th centuries it belonged to the de Voisinlieu family, then to the de Chamegnelles and Brayer families in the 18th century. Confiscated during the Revolution and auctioned as state property, it was bought in 1839 by Amélie Greffulhe, Countess of Ségur, who had the east wing enlarged and the French garden west of the logis turned into an English landscape garden. It has been listed as a monument historique since 12 May 1975.

The castle reflects the way French nobility organized their homes and displayed their status through architecture. Its layout with the courtyard and different buildings shows how families lived and conducted daily activities across the property.

The castle sits roughly 800 meters southwest of Saint-Symphorien church and is accessible for external viewing. You can walk around the property to see the stone facades, roof details, and how the buildings connect around the courtyard.

In the former outer bailey stands a 16th-century dovecote: a round tower with a brick-coned roof and open lantern topped by a weathervane. Its upper floor keeps rows of clay nesting holes, many walled up because a lord's permitted number of pigeons depended on the size of his land, much of which was later sold off. The ground floor once served as a dairy.