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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Vauban Tower, located in Epiry in Nièvre, is the only vestige of a medieval castle built at the beginning of the 15th century by Pierre de Basso. This square tower, four-level high plus one-storey attic, was initially used as a fortified dungeon with cannons and narrow bays. It was transformed in the 17th century, probably under the impulse of Vauban, with the addition of large regular windows and a wooden staircase replacing the old stone screw.

The monument is inseparable from Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707), who married Jeanne d'Osnay in 1660 in this castle belonging to his father, Claude d'Osnay. The couple lived there briefly before Vauban was called back to the king's service. Their daughter Charlotte, born in 1661, was married there in 1680 to Jacques-Louis de Mesgrigny, thus perpetuating the family connection with the premises. The tower retains defensive elements such as mâchicoulis and a ditch, as well as traces of daily life (pathways, original carpentry).

Ranked a historic monument in 2010, the tower now belongs to a private company. Its architecture combines medieval characteristics (apparent stone, murderous) and 17th-century amenities (extended bays, staircases). Georges Clemenceau, in 1900, described his austere appearance and his preserved interior, where beams ceilings, coarse tiles and a chimney remain, whose shield was hammered during the Revolution. The local oral tradition still evokes the memory of the 'maréchale de Vauban'.

Vauban's manuscripts, inherited by his descendants via Charlotte de Mesgrigny, are now preserved at the Château de Rosanbo (Côtes-d'Armor). A commemorative plaque, affixed by order of Napoleon I, recalls the emperor's attachment to the memory of the Marshal. The tower, integrated into a farm, illustrates the evolution of fortifications into seigneurial residences and then utility buildings.

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