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Origin and history

The Mothe castle in Tersannes, first mentioned in 1490, was built in 1491 by a local lord. This square house, surrounded by outbuildings organised in U around a central courtyard, illustrates the civil architecture of the late Middle Ages. The façade is distinguished by a cladding lintel decorated with a shield with erased coat of arms, while a circular tower houses a screw staircase serving the floors. The Gothic fireplaces on the first floor and the remains of a pond (today reduced to a pond) recall its residential and defensive use.

In the 17th century, the castle lost its function of permanent residence and became an occasional property. Sold to the hospital sisters of Magnac around 1730, it was transformed into a public hospital during the Revolution. The outbuildings, added after 1491, included a hay barn flanked by two towers (now gone), a border, and probably a chapel. The estate, surrounded by enclosed gardens and a pond, reflected the seigneurial organization of the period, mixing noble habitat, agricultural activities and spaces of representation.

Ranked a Historic Monument in 2009, the castle retains remarkable elements such as its U-shaped plan, its stair tower and its Gothic interior decorations. The absence of detailed documents about its occupants limits the knowledge of its social history, but its architecture and transformations (residence, hospital) make it a witness to the rural changes between the Middle Ages and modern times. The accuracy of its location remains poor (level 5/10), and its current state is not documented in available sources.

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