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Origin and history

The castle of Marcilly, located in the eponymous hamlet on the commune of Cervon (Nièvre), is a 15th century fortress built by Jean de Salazart, Baron and gentleman of Spain. Triangularly, it was originally girded with walls, ditches and four angular towers, with the Yonne as a natural defence. Its architecture combines medieval defensive elements (assommoirs, cannonholes transformed into windows) and subsequent redevelopments, notably in the 18th century (mansardous combles, suppression of courtines) and in the 19th century (wing in return for square). A castral chapel, now destroyed, was on the south terrace.

In the 15th century, the seigneury of Marcilly, moving from the abbey of Saint-Léonard de Corbigny, passed into the hands of noble families: Jean de Salazart sold it in 1443 to Jean Bondault, then by inheritance to Pierre Leroy de Carreau (1508). In the 17th century, Barony was divided between the Leroys, the Jaucourts and the Mesgrignys, the latter linked by alliance to the family of Vauban. In 1710 Charles Leroy de Carreau gave his share to Jacques-Louis de Mesgrigny, husband of Charlotte Le Prestre, daughter of Marshal de Vauban. The castle also preserves cannons souvenirs of the capture of Philippsburg, offered in Vauban.

In the 18th century, the estate belonged to Le Peletier d'Aunay, including Louis-Etienne Hector, mayor of Paris under the First Empire and deputy under the Restoration. His son, Count Honoré-Joseph-Octave, Mayor of Cervon and owner of the castle in 1865, lived there until his death. The commons and 17th century chapel, as well as the interior decorations, have been protected since 1996 as historical monuments. The park houses an underground gallery where a Rhinolophus hipposideros was discovered in 2019. Private property, the castle is not visited.

The architecture reflects its successive transformations: vaulted ground floor with round 15th-century towers, interior façade with a 17th-century door, and attic built in the 18th century. The ditches, now dry, were crossed by a drawbridge, replaced by a dormant bridge. The site, described by Abbé Baudiau in 1865, combines medieval vestige (angle towers, moats) and classical additions (corbelled towers, enlarged windows).

The castle of Marcilly embodies the feudal and then seigneurial history of the Morvan, marked by noble alliances (Leroy, Mesgrigny, Le Peletier) and figures like Vauban, whose military and architectural heritage is palpable. The archives mention restorations in the 20th century (1915, 1970), but the heart of the house and its defences retain their original character. Ranked for its commons and chapel, there remains a testimony of morvandelle fortresses adapted to modern times.

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