Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château des Pins is a medieval tower built between the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century, on the town of Pins in Charente. Located in the Bonnieure Valley, this monument is distinguished by its three-storey square dungeon, crowned with mâchicoulis and built in white limestone. Originally, it was equipped with a missing drawbridge, and was completed by a corner turret and a small stair turret replacing a collapsed structure. Its architecture reflects the defensive needs of the time, at the border of the English and French territories during the Hundred Years War.

The archives concerning the castle of the Pins are rare, but they evoke a conflict between the local lord and the Augustinians of the convent of Mortemart, probably linked to rights of justice. The family Viroulaud de Marillac, to whom its construction is attributed, was the owner until the seventeenth century. In 1643 François Viroulaud de Marillac, involved in the Fronde against the king, was beheaded, resulting in the sale of the seigneury. René de Devezeau became its owner in 1626, before the estate passed into the hands of parish priest René Merceron during the Revolution. The latter, after marrying an heiress, became mayor of the Pins in 1840.

The Château des Pins, classified as a historical monument since 3 April 1958, bears witness to the architectural and political transformations of the region. The base of the tower, with its foothills, suggests an older, perhaps Romanesque, origin, while the defensive elements (cranels, mâchicoulis) and the cylindrical turret housing a staircase with a view date from its post-war reconstruction of Cent Years. Today, there remains a remarkable example of the Charentais castral heritage, marked by the Franco-English conflicts and the upheavals of the Ancien Régime.

External links