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Origin and history

The Château de la Salle, located in the plain north of Gémozac in Charente-Maritime, finds its origins in the medieval fief of Ozignac, mentioned since 1310 when it was sold by Geoffroy Tison to Pierre Estève. This fief, successively owned by the Fabry, Beaumont, and Coucis families, became in the 17th century the noble home of La Salle, property of Jeanne du Lyon, lady of Potonville, after his marriage to Jean de Rivery. His grandson, Louis Bouchard, and his daughter Henriette-Dorothée Bouchard d'Aubeterre continued the lineage of the owners until the early 18th century.

Around 1720 Charles-Louis-Henri Bouchard d'Esparbes de Lussan (1682-1740), the king's page, undertook the complete reconstruction of the old house, described in 1681 as a simple house covered with slates and tiles, to modernize it according to the classic canons of the time. The new building, erected in one jet, is distinguished by its symmetry, its ditches carved in the rock, and its square balusters, reflecting the prestige of a noble Saintonge family. The castle then passed to his son, Henri Joseph Bouchard d'Esparbes de Lussan (1714-1788), future Marshal of France, then by alliance with the Bourdeilles.

The Revolution marked a turning point: sold in 1791 to Pierre-Étienne-Lazare Griffon de Romagné, Member of Parliament for the Third State, the castle was then fragmented in 1828 after its transmission to heirs in difficulty. Partially classified as historical monuments in 1990, he suffered a devastating fire in 1985, destroying a wing and an entrance pavilion. Despite these vicissitudes, the facades, roofs, ditches and protected balusters still bear witness to its past fascist.

Architecturally, the château de la Salle illustrates the sober classicism of the years 1720-1730, with a U-shaped plan, a housing body framed by symmetrical wings, and a south-west facade rhythmized by a three arched bridge-perron. Details such as the harped chains, the segmental arc lintels and the canal tiles recall those of the castle of Mons in Royan, built in the same period. The old vaulted kitchen and the vestiges of the entrance gate complete this heritage, now partially in ruins but still emblematic of the Saintonge.

The archives reveal that its construction was motivated by the will of Charles-Louis-Henri Bouchard d'Esparbes de Lussan to put [the house] in new taste and to give it the brilliant suitable for a land possessed by a man of his birth. An 18th-century judicial factum confirms this ambition, describing the works as a break with the austerity of the original medieval home.

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