Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

Loubersan Castle, located in the Gers, has its origins in the 11th century as a fortified mansion built by the Lobersan family. This long building, equipped with murderers on the ground floor and large openings on the first floor, was lined with moat and surmounted by a round road with mâchicoulis. The family of Lobersan, a donor at the Berdoues Abbey for three centuries, kept the property for four hundred years. A seigneurial chapel, surrounded by a cemetery, was then to the east, outside the enclosure, while the village extended southeast into a comb.

In the 15th century, the senechal of Guyenne Galaubie de Panassac, a companion of arms of Jeanne d'Arc, radically transformed the mansion into a stunning fortress. It erects a square enclosure more than 5 meters high, flanked by two massive towers pierced with 26 mouths, making any assault unlikely. These towers, round on the outside but square inside with thick walls of 1.90 m, make Loubersan a strategic stronghold alongside the castle of Garrané to protect Mirande. The military apparatus reflects the innovations of the royal artillery introduced by Jean and Gaspard Bureau.

The following centuries saw the castle change hands and vocation. In the 17th century, the family of Antras became the owner of it before a trial was brought against the Rohan-Chabot, who made it a hunting event. In the 18th century, Bourdonnie's family acquired the residence and undertook controversial "modernisation" works: the destruction of the square tower, two walls of the enclosure and the north building (destroying the "greatest du Gers" cell), as well as the substitution of the east and west walls with kitchens and a chapel. These works reveal medieval bones, testimonies of dreaded dungeons where they said: "If you go to the castle of Lobersan, before entering there say goodbye to the light! »

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the castle served in turn as a prison during the Napoleonic wars and the Spanish war (the gendarmes executed deserters there, leaving graffiti in the cachots), then as a farm, as a grain stock and even as a refuge for children. The actor Jean Marais briefly stayed there. In 1996, the designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac became its owner. Today, the castle, surrounded by a park with rare trees reported from Orient by M. de Dillon (ceders, acacias), is not visited.

The current architecture mixes medieval remains (northern towers, wall of enclosure, oblivions) and later additions such as the chapel with the ceiling painted in Lectoure blue (pastel of dyers) or kitchens. A statue of the Virgin, at the entrance of the cavalier driveway, recalls the ancient pilgrimage linking neighbouring villages. The underground, dungeon and graffiti of the prisoners still bear witness to its tormented history, between seigneurial power, military conflicts and architectural transformations.

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