Château de Sennecey-le-Grand

History

A first castle, rectangular and ringed with round towers and a deep moat, succeeded a fortified house of the 10th or 11th century. It was badly damaged during the war between Armagnacs and Burgundians. Jean II de Toulongeon began to rebuild it with the duke's help, and after his death in 1427 his son completed the works, which were finished in 1470.

From 1580 Nicolas de Bauffremont-Sennecey launched a complete transformation, continued by his son Claude and finished in 1592. A vast new enclosure of 119 by 107 metres, with bastions, crenellated walls and a water-filled moat, surrounded the house. A pavilion crowned with statues of Jupiter, Venus and Juno guarded the entrance, and the great hall displayed twelve paintings of Roman emperors.

The estate later passed through several great families, including the Foix-Candale, the Vieuxpont and the Ailly, before coming to the Noailles by marriage in 1803. In 1824 they sold it to the commune, which demolished the château to build a parish church. Only the four corner pavilions, the base of the walls, part of the moat, two stone bridges and the outbuildings survive.

Architecture

What remains is mostly the late 16th-century bastioned enclosure. The two northern pavilions stand on bastions, one still carrying a cartouche with the Bauffremont arms, and show rusticated quoins and window frames. In the east wing, now the town hall, a round-arched doorway between fluted pilasters carries a frieze of ox skulls and rosettes and the date 1592. A similar doorway opens into the west wing.