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Origin and history

Bagneux Castle, located in Bournan (Indre-et-Loire), is a fortress built between the 13th and 15th centuries. Its structure rests on a square base surrounded by four enclosure towers, two of which remain today with their conical slate roofs, called "popperry". These towers retain their mâchicoulis, while the sled windows, pierced in facades and towers, testify to its dual vocation: military defense and aristocratic place of life. The estate, a former fiefdom belonging to the castle of Sainte-Maure, has had various names over the centuries, including Baniolus (816) or Bagneux de Bournan (17th century).

Guillaume de Beygnoux (or de Bagneux), the first known lord, lived there in 1331. The castle then passed into the hands of the Puy family, then to Louis de Bourbon, the natural son of Duke Charles I of Bourbon and Jeanne du Puy. He was married to Jeanne de Bourbon and his husband, Jean, seigneur du Fau, master of the king's hotel. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the families of Benais, Le Fèvre de Caumartin, de la Varenne and Dangé d'Orsay became successively lords.

The castle was the scene of a notable event in 1912, when President Armand Fallières attended the capture of Bagneux during the major military manoeuvres of the West. He then received the Grand Duke Nicolas of Russia at Sainte-Maure. Listed at the Historical Monuments in 1927, the castle illustrates the architectural and social evolution of medieval fortresses in Touraine.

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