Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château House, located in Bourges, is a composite building combining two distinct periods. Built in 1688 for Canon Moreau, it replaces an old canonical house acquired in 1687. The original pavilion-shaped building included a vaulted cellar, a kitchen, an upper bedroom, a room and a cabinet. Between 1691 and 1770, extensions were added: a house body, a garden, a courtyard, and a second pavilion backed by the first. The main facade, unchanged since the 17th century, has a rectangular door surmounted by an interrupted pediment and oval shields, symbols of the Moreau family.

The Romanesque door of the 12th century, integrated into the building, would probably come from the church of Saint-Oustriille, an ancient abbey founded before the 6th century. This gate, with its pediments adorned with volutes and modillons, presents an internal voussure decorated with broken sticks and plant motifs, while the external voussure evokes rinseaux in the shape of eight. These stylistic elements are reminiscent of northern Romanesque art, including Norman and Franciscan. The eardrum, replaced between the 18th and 19th centuries, contrasts with the authenticity of the rest of the work.

Classified as a Historic Monument, the house illustrates the transition between the Middle Ages and the classical era. The south facade and the exterior staircase have been registered since 1989, while the Romanesque gate has been classified since 1992. Today, the property of the Cher department, the site preserves traces of its past use, such as the guns of Canon Moreau engraved in the cellar or the remains of the church Saint-Oustriille, reduced to its first Romanesque span and to a crypt buried under a garden.

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