Timeline

Origin and history

Charmes Fort House is an old stronghold located in the village of Charmes, in the Côte-d的Or (Bourgogne-Franche-Comté). Accessible from the 25c departmental road, it consists of four buildings organised around a trapezoidal central courtyard. Its architecture combines defensive elements, such as today partially filled ditches, and residential or agricultural spaces, reflecting its evolution over the centuries.

Built in the 16th century, the fortified house was mentioned in 1728 in a count describing a "fossy castle" accompanied by outbuildings (caves, attic, barn, stables, oven and dovecote). Subsequent transformations changed its original appearance: the dovecote was converted into a house, a 19th century barn replaced a 16th century building, and the north and west ditches, still in water in 1838, were filled. These developments illustrate the adaptation of the structure to residential and agricultural uses.

Today's architecture reveals traces of its defensive and seigneurial past. The main building, rectangular, has a long-paned roof and a high attic. The old dovecote, of square plan, keeps a straight staircase and an attic in addition. One of the buildings houses a vaulted lower room in a cradle with a canonary archer, while a high room, with exposed beams, evokes the reception spaces of the past. These elements attest to the duality between military and domestic service, characteristic of the strong houses of that time.

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