Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château du Grand-Châtelet is a 15th and 16th century building located in Thilouze, in Indre-et-Loire (Centre-Val de Loire). It occupies the north side of a enclosure of which only the moat remains, with a rectangular building body flanked by four cylindrical towers with pepper roofs. The south-east tower houses a stone screw staircase, while the north facades and towers, redesigned in the 16th century, feature a medium apparatus. A door in the middle of the hanger, preceded by a drawbridge, allowed to cross the moat. To the west, a chapel contiguous with the castle has a vaulted nave of prisms.

Former fief depending on the archdiocese of Tours in the 14th century, the castle housed the Mauritian writer Loys Masson between 1943 and 1944, who drew a novel from it in 1957 (La Dove). Owned by the same family for 250 years, it has been listed as a historical monument since October 22, 1962, including the castle and its chapel. The construction around 1520 on an old castle is attributed to a certain Gallebrun, without further details.

The building also preserves a 16th century barn with wooden panels. Its architecture combines defensive elements (doves, drawbridge) and residential elements (chapel, towers), reflecting the evolutions between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The repaired facades and the ogival chapel illustrate this stylistic transition, while his recent occupation by a writer adds a literary dimension to his history.

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