Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Turcey Castle, located at the northwest end of the village of Turcey (Côte d'Or), finds its origins in the 12th century with the fief of the Tour de Turcey. In the 15th century, it consists of a mounded enclosure, a tower and a barn, linked to the Abbey of Saint-Seine. In 1200 Gautier de Sombernon gave his lands of Turcey to this abbey, and in 1238 a charter confirmed that Gui de Turcey held this fief of the church of Saint-Seine. In 1483, the tower remained under the suzerainety of the abbey, as evidenced by an act of 1533 in which Guillaume Bougard acknowledged to hold the strong house of Turcey, with his drawbridge, of Abbé Antoine of Vienna.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Étienne de Loisy, president of the Chamber of Accounts of Burgundy, partially rebuilt the fortress between 1605 and 1611. The estate, then surrounded by walls and ditches, includes a castle, a strong house, corner towers, a doorway, a house body with pavilion, and outbuildings like a stable and a shed. The chapel, decorated with Renaissance paintings, bears the 1611 vintage. At the end of the 18th century, the castle was abandoned, sold as national property in 1796 (year IV), then converted into a farm. Two of its chimneys were dismantled in 1897 and relocated to Dijon, the Palace of Justice and the Carnot High School.

The castle architecture combines medieval defensive elements and Renaissance additions. The central courtyard is surrounded by three round towers and a rectangular tower, with a peg tower supporting a drawbridge. The western building, with Gothic fireplaces and a bread oven, closes the courtyard, while an imposing three-storey rectangular tower, dating from the 15th century, dominates the whole. This tower features cannon guns, a steeple and a chimney stump. A vaulted chapel, decorated with painted coats and coats of arms, occupies the first floor of an adjacent building. The ditches, now closed, remain only traces near the peg tower.

Ranked a historic monument in two stages (the entrance door in 1928 and the entire castle in 1999), the site now threatens to ruin despite its inscription. Its history reflects the links between Burgundy nobility, ecclesiastical power and architectural transformations, from medieval origins to its post-revolutionary decline.

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