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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The castle of the Bruget presents itself as a rectangle flanked by two square towers to the north and a round tower to the south, housing a screw staircase dating probably from the fourteenth century. The south facade, pierced by rectangular windows and mortals, preserves a stone engraved with the coat of arms of La Tour de Beins, a noble family linked to its construction. Inside, a monumental fireplace on the first floor, decorated with fine columns with decorated capitals, was restored in the 20th century with slabs recovered from a chapel of Aubenas. The staircase ends with a umbel vault called "sarrasine", typical of medieval regional architecture.

The castle would have been built in the 17th century by the family of La Tour de Beins on older foundations, before passing to the Launay. In 1780 Emmanuel de Launay, Count of Antraigues, sold him to Aimé Monteil, a lawyer in Jaujac. After becoming a national during the Revolution, he was transformed into a farm and saved from the ruin in the 1930s by Georges Balaÿ and his sisters. The restorations of this period included the consolidation of the facade, the repair of the windows and the winding of the large chimney. Enlisted as historical monuments in 1954, it illustrates the architectural evolution between the Middle Ages and the modern era.

The discovery in 1985 of an armored stone above the entrance door confirms the initial belonging of the castle to the Tower of Beins, an aristocratic family ardèche. Defensive elements (murder, towers) suggest a partial medieval origin, although the present structure dates mostly from the seventeenth century. The restorations of the 20th century, combining the re-use of local materials (dalles of Aubenas) and traditional techniques, preserved its historical character while adapting to temporary agricultural use.

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