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Origin and history

The Château des Fougis is a Renaissance building located in Thionne, in the Allier department, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Built at the end of the 16th century, it is distinguished by its body of rectangular houses flanked by two square towers and a round tower, as well as by its polychrome brick walls decorated with diamond-shaped motifs. The frames of the openings, in white limestone, contrast with the polychromy of the facades. The estate, originally owned by the Le Long family from 1461, remained in this line until the French Revolution.

In 1727 the fief was passed on to Jean de Berthier de Bizy, a nephew of the Le Long. At the beginning of the 19th century, in 1802, the castle was acquired by Antoine Clayeux, a timber merchant whose family had already exploited the lands of the Fougis as farmers since 1742. The castle remained in this family until the early 2000s, when major improvements were made around 1900. In 2001, the German artist Erich Engelbrecht bought the property to install a park of monumental steel sculptures, a project he realized before his death in 2011.

Today, the Château des Fougis is a private property owned by the heirs of Erich Engelbrecht. Although the building is not open to the public or listed as a historic monument, its park houses twenty-nine monumental sculptures accessible to visitors. The site thus illustrates a fusion between Renaissance architectural heritage and contemporary art, while testifying to the seigneurial and bourgeois history of Bourbonnais.

Historical sources mention the castle in several specialized works, including those dedicated to the Bourbonnais fiefs and the castles of the region. Its architecture and family history, marked by successive transmissions, make it a representative example of noble residences transformed over the centuries, before experiencing an artistic vocation in the 21st century.

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