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Origin and history

Lazenay Castle, located in Bourges in the Cher, is a medieval house built in the 13th century. It is located along the Auron River, close to Lake d This monument, initially a strong house surrounded by ditches, is located on a Gallo-Roman site, as evidenced by the burials discovered in the 1990s and 2000s before their recovery by subdivisions and golf.

The estate, called the "domain of Azenay", was acquired in 1265 by Robert de Clamecy, an affluent bourgeois of Bourges, and his son Guiot de Clamecy. The latter had the house still visible today built, accompanied by a mill that had now disappeared. The Clamecy family kept the castle until 1496, when it was sold to Guillaume Compaing, who made arrangements there in 1503 and 1506. In the 16th century, the castle changed hands several times before being given in 1574 to Jehan Niquet, abbot of Saint-Gildas de Châteauroux, who offered him to the Jesuits of Bourges as a country residence.

According to the descriptions of Buhot de Kersers, the castle included a circuit of walls, several houses, and a chapel preceded by a gallery. The upper floor housed a room decorated with gemini windows with carved lintels, typical of medieval architecture. In 1562, Charles IX and Catherine de Médicis reportedly stayed there for two weeks during the siege of Bourges. Confiscated as a national property during the French Revolution, the castle was acquired by Alphonse Charles Soulard in 1876, who joined a bourgeois house, relegating the house porch to the role of agricultural dependency.

The site then passed into the hands of the Petit Séminaire and then of the municipality of Bourges. The medieval house, left abandoned, was the subject of an archaeological study in 1994 and was classified as a historical monument in the same year. The main residence was converted into a hotel residence in 1996 after a complete renovation. The castle is distinguished by its porch house, composed of a square porch surmounted by one floor and a rectangular house with grooved windows, although some parts, such as the cross vault, have disappeared.

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