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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The castle of Bouteville, now in ruins, was built at the site of a Gallo-Roman villa, then a castle mentioned in 1028. It belonged successively to the Taillefer (counts of Angoulême), the Lusignans, then became a strategic issue during the Hundred Years' War, passing into French and English hands. John d'Orléans restored it in 1453 after its destruction, but it fell into ruins in 1598 after the Wars of Religion.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Bernard de Béon du Massès, governor of Angoumois and Saintonge, rebuilt the castle between 1593 and 1624, with the help of his widow Louise of Luxembourg after his death. The estate remained in the Béon family until 1726, before being transformed by Henri de Bruzac-Hautefort. Confiscated in the Revolution after the emigration of the Earl of Artois (later Charles X), it was sold and partially demolished in 1804, its decorative elements dispersed (like a monumental fireplace transferred to Bourg-Charente castle).

Ranked a historic monument in 1984, the castle passed in 1994 under the property of the commune of Bouteville. Its remains, organised around a square courtyard, testify to its past fascination: round towers, baroque decorations, and gargoyles with human masks. The site, marked by centuries of seigneurial power and conflicts, embodies the turbulent history of Angoumois, between French kingship and English influence.

The architecture combines medieval traces (doves, entrance bridge) with Renaissance and classical elements, such as the chapel on the first floor of the north wing or baroque cartridges adorning the niches. The Wars of Religion also left their mark: in 1577, the garrison of Bouteville killed near Jarnac Charles Danowitz, assassin of the Admiral of Coligny, after holding him prisoner in the castle. François de Montmorency-Bouteville, famous for his fatal duel in 1627, lived there in the early seventeenth century.

Archaeological and textual sources confirm the strategic importance of the site, located on an identified moat platform. The east (oldest), north and west wings housed respectively seigneurial houses, chapel, stables and attices. Successive demolitions, especially in the 19th century, have erased part of its history, but the current ruins and archives still reveal its past extent.

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