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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Langlard Castle, located in Mazerier in Allier, is a medieval building dating back to the 13th century, with two round towers still visible. Most of the current construction dates from the 14th and 15th centuries, including a two-storey house body, a square tower and a hexagonal tower with a screw staircase. The site dominates the plain of Limagne, offering an extended view towards the mountains of Forez.

The chapel of the castle, located on the first floor of the East Tower, preserves a remarkable painted decoration of the late 15th century representing the Last Judgment. This iconographic cycle includes the Christ Judge, the elect heading towards heavenly Jerusalem, and the damned pushed to Hell by demons. The alleged sponsors of these paintings could be Antoine Bayard (treasurer-general of finance) or his wife, whose coats of arms (from Azur to the golden chevron) appear in the composition. An earlier hypothesis attributed patronage to Agnès de Montmorin, owner of the castle until the 1480s.

In the 15th century, the castle belonged to the family of Montmorin, then passed by marriage to Gilbert de Toucy-Bazerne before being acquired in 1489 by Antoine Bayard. The monument remains in this line until the 17th century. His most famous story is the visit of the Marquise de Sévigné in June 1676, who stayed there with his friend Abbé Jacques Bayard, seigneur of the place. During the Revolution, the towers were razed by order of the law of "defeodalization" of 1794, removing their attic.

The gardens and terraces, described in the 18th century as remarkable (notably by a poem by Joseph Hennequin in 1805), had already disappeared in the early 19th century. Today, the castle is a private property divided in two, closed to the public. Since 1929, it has been listed as a Historic Monument for its architecture and murals, as well as its fireplaces.

Historical sources also mention links with Madame de La Fayette, friend of Abbé Bayard, and emphasize the importance of the site as a witness to Bourbonese seigneurial architecture, mixing defensive functions (feudal muff, towers) and residential (painted oratory, vaulted rooms).

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