Castle of Ogny en Côte-d'or

Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

Ogny Castle, located in the hamlet of Ogny in Marcilly-Ogny (Côte-d'Or), is mentioned for the first time in 1311 as a strong house. He was then ceded by Guillemette, wife of Bonami de Satenay, to Perronet the Vertuous, bourgeois Dijonnais. This transfer follows a family heritage, Guillemette having received the premises of her sister Jeannette Pèlerin. This first document attests to its medieval existence, although its exact form at that time remains unknown.

In 1451, the site was described as a "strong chastel" belonging to Anthoine de Colombier. This mention confirms its defensive role during the late Middle Ages. During the Wars of Religion, the castle was occupied by Huguenots, who organized a sermon there. He was assisted by the troops of the Catholic League and suffered partial damage, requiring reconstruction in the next century.

The major reconstruction took place in 1620 under the impetus of Vincent Robelin (died 1635), lord of Ogny and president of the Parliament of Dijon. He built the building with four dangle towers and added a square dovecote, as well as commons. In the 17th century, the castle lost its purely defensive character: the northeast tower became a residential pavilion, while the southeast tower houses the dovecote. A house body is attached to the northwest tower, extending the whole to the west.

In the 19th century (1845), the original strong house remained only a rectangular platform flanked by four towers, one of which disappeared. The dry ditch, kept on three sides, is crossed by a sleeping bridge to the east. The site also includes a botanical garden (buis, hostas, peonies), a monumental well, a forge, and a round dovecote of 900 bolts, showing its evolution towards an agricultural and landscape vocation.

Today, Ogny Castle illustrates the architectural transformations of a medieval fortress into a seigneurial residence and then into a rural estate. Its mixed plan (defensive elements and arrangements of the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries) and its dependencies (commons, dovecote) make it a representative example of the Burgundian castral heritage, marked by religious conflicts and adaptations to local needs.

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