Château de Marval, castle in Marval (Haute-Vienne)

Château de Marval grew from a rectangular medieval logis, still visible in two pointed-arch doors and a broken-arch window on the old gable. The south facade has a cross-mullioned window with a cavetto moulding and a row of chamfered mullioned windows. A stair pavilion was added at the rear, and the 17th-century rebuilding gave a long main block flanked by two projecting pavilions under steep roofs of flat tiles.

The seigneurie of Marval is documented in the first half of the 13th century; a 1252 ruling assigned the bourg to the vicomtes de Rochechouart. The castle, then called château des Roberts, passed to the La Faye family in 1503 through the marriage of Louis de La Faye and Isabeau des Roberts. In June 1569 Calvinist troops of Gaspard de Coligny, marching to the battle of La Roche-l'Abeille, sacked it; the south-facing part was rebuilt, probably by Jean de Lambertie, and the village houses were rebuilt around 1600-1610.

The castle's name comes from the village seigneury of Marval, whose rights were disputed between the viscounts of Limoges and Rochechouart; a 1252 ruling assigned the bourgs of Marval and Cussac to Rochechouart. On a church buttress added to the 12th-century bell tower are the arms of the Lambertie family, and beneath them a stone inscribed O : E : D : N : S : C — the same unexplained letters appear on a castle facade.

The nearest train station is at Châlus, roughly 30 kilometers away, while Limoges airport is about 45 kilometers distant. A car makes it easier to reach the castle and explore the surrounding villages and countryside.

The inscription "O : E : D : N : S : C" appears both on a facade of the castle and on a stone beneath the arms of the Lambertie family on a buttress of the Marval church. Its meaning remains unexplained. The church wall nearby also shows the arms of the La Faye and Lambertie families joined, near their burial place.