Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The dungeon of the Boyle, located in Brezons in the Cantal, is the last vestige of a seigneurial castle built in the 15th century. It belonged to a powerful Auvergnate line established since the tenth century, which died in 1622. The castle, partially dismantled in 1628 by order of Richelieu after the Wars of Religion, today only preserves this dungeon, the central element of the fortress. Its architecture combines a rectangular plan and a screw staircase turret, typical of the defensive buildings of the era.

The dungeon has an elevated ground floor above a vaulted basement in a cradle, divided into two vaulted rooms. The upper floors, accessible by the spiral staircase, reproduce this arrangement, although the rooms are covered with wooden ceilings. The round road, pierced by machicolis and d'archères, crowns the building. A local legend says that the stakes, excommunicated for their flights, would not cross the border marked by this dungeon.

The seigneury of Brezons played a notable role in the Haute-Auvergne, providing two abbots to the Chaise-Dieu (XIIth–IIIrd centuries) and a governor, Charles de Brezons (1545–1609), appointed by the Guise. The first castle, destroyed in the 14th century by Renaud de Murat, was rebuilt in the 15th century. The dungeon, classified as a Historical Monument in 1958, bears witness to this feudal past. The name la Boyle, recent ( 1960s), replaces the old names Laboual or the Bohal.

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