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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The house of Neuglize, also called the "Vieux Château", is a wood-paned building located in the hamlet of Neuglize, on the town of Bessay-sur-Allier, in the Allier. Built in the late 16th century and enlarged in the 18th century, it replaces an old strong house and dominates a pond and woods. Its typical architecture of the Bourbonese Sologne combines oak, bricks and lime-coated, with Gothic structure and polychrome brick decorations. The house, once surrounded by commons and a closed courtyard, was partially dismantled in the 19th century after the disappearance of the local parish.

Ranked a historic monument in 1988, the house of Neuglize illustrates the rural heritage of the lords or bourgeois of the Ancien Régime. After serving as an agricultural building in the 19th century, it was substantially restored from 2008 to its original appearance. Its dovecote, cellar and cross façades of Saint Andrew make it a rare example of hybrid architecture, mixing wood, brick and medieval techniques. The site also preserves the traces of the old parish church, which disappeared after the Revolution, and of a later manor built at its site.

The house embodies the history of the Bourbonese Sologne, a stone-poor area where wood and brick dominated. Its initial squared plan, partially collapsed, and its frame in "inverted ship hull" testify to local know-how. The two remaining brick pavilions, dating from the 19th century, recall the original spatial organization, centered on a rectangular courtyard. Today, the site remains a major testimony of rural seigneurial habitat between the 16th and 18th centuries.

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