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Origin and history

The Château de la Motte à Usseau, located in the department of Vienna in New Aquitaine, is a building built in the second half of the 15th century, around 1452, by Guillaume de Bec. It stands on a very ancient fortified site, on the border between Touraine and Poitou, where remains the remains of a 12th century feudal motte. This medieval style castle consists of a rectangular building body flanked by a circular tower and a polygonal stair tower, with defensive elements such as mâchicoulis and canonary archers. The tower, renovated in the 18th century, houses an oak staircase and a hemispherical vault surmounted by a room with a 15th century fireplace.

In the 19th century, important works were carried out, notably between 1863 and 1870 by monks, who changed the west elevation of the house, pierced a vaulted gallery and redeveloped the interiors. The ditches surrounding the castle were filled, and outbuildings (grange, stables, housing) were built below. The castle, which was used as a wheat attic in the 20th century, preserved medieval architectural elements, such as a rack-to-crack staircase and door windows. It is surrounded by a medievally inspired educational garden, created between 2001 and 2006, which presents food, aromatic and medicinal plants of the Middle Ages, organized according to geometrical plans typical of the era.

The site of the castle is linked to an earlier feudal motte, now destroyed, which measured 25 meters in diameter and was girded by a ditch. This moth housed troglodytic dwellings and a deep well, mentioned in feudal confessions of the 15th and 15th centuries. The fief de la Motte was held by lords such as Geoffroy Le Maingre, assimilated to a chestnut lord, suggesting the strategic importance of the site. The present castle, registered as a historical monument in 2004, is a testimony of the architectural and social evolution of the region, between the Middle Ages and the modern era.

The Château de la Motte was once decorated with murals, now extinct, dating back to the years 1520-1530. These frescoes represented a horseman hunting near a fountain, as well as a view of the castle and the church of the village, accompanied by a coat of arms and a gothic inscription. These artistic elements, though lost, illustrate the prestige of the place during the Renaissance. The castle, surrounded by a park of centuries-old lime trees and accessible by an alley of cherry trees, thus combines architectural, historical and natural heritage.

The geographical context ofUsseau, marked by rolling plains landscapes and tuffle soils, influenced the construction and use of the castle. The region, exposed to an altered oceanic climate, was traditionally dedicated to agriculture and livestock, with forests and dominant moors. The castle, as a seigneurial seat, played a central role in the local social and economic organization, notably through the management of the surrounding lands and resources.

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