Château de Savigny-le-Vieux: A Fourteenth-Century Fortified Château in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Burgundy, French
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page7 sections
History
Medieval Lords and Ownership
Château de Savigny-le-Vieux is a fortified château in Curgy, France, whose principal construction dates to the fourteenth century. Its earliest recorded connection with the Drée family begins in 1365, when Hugues de Drée, lord of Blanzy, became responsible for the château. His son Guillaume later transferred it to the knight Jean du Rousset, lord of Clomot. Jean was a counsellor of Charles VI, king of France from 1380 to 1422, and an associate of the king’s queen, Isabelle of Bavaria.
On 6 May 1410, the château passed to the chapter of Saint-Lazare Cathedral in Autun. A cathedral chapter was the corporate body of canons attached to a cathedral. The canons were chiefly interested in the income from the estate’s 250 hectares and generally did not maintain the lordship, with the notable exception of the canon Gabriel de Grigny.
Sixteenth-Century Alterations
Before 1565, during the second half of the sixteenth century, Gabriel de Grigny added a pavilion against the keep. This extension later collapsed in 1980. The same period brought changes to the keep itself, including a new roof framework over its principal room.
Revolutionary and Modern History
The château was sold as national property on 23 December 1791. National property consisted of estates confiscated and sold by the revolutionary French state. The Couland family held Château de Savigny-le-Vieux from 1791 to 1987. Although it remained inhabited until then, the château was abandoned in 1918.
Since 1987, Éric Mayer-Schaller, an honorary consul of Malta of Swiss origin, a relative by marriage of the Couland family and a direct descendant of the first owners, has overseen the château’s future. In 2007, he began a restoration campaign intended to make the keep habitable. The château was partially registered as a historic monument on 3 September 1990, a form of legal heritage protection in France.
The site also retains heraldic associations with its former owners. The arms of the Drée family are red with five silver martlets arranged diagonally in a cross, while an earlier arrangement placed the same charges two, two, and one. Their motto, Officidi laudisque tenax, means “steadfast in duty and glory.” The chapter of Saint-Lazare Cathedral in Autun bore red arms with a black anchored cross and a silver border.
Remains
The Keep
The château stands in the Savigny-le-Vieux locality, in the valley of the Drée, isolated among meadows. Almost all of the original structures have disappeared. The surviving keep is a square masonry tower measuring 9 metres on each side and approximately 17 metres high, excluding the roof. Its walls are about 1.30 metres thick and were built with large masonry using local materials.
The keep has three levels and approximately 200 to 250 square metres of floor space. It rests on a projecting basement that forms a terrace and is now topped by a slate hipped roof supported by a sixteenth-century chestnut framework. The principal room contains rustic furniture belonging to Éric Mayer-Schaller, a list of the canons who held the site, and a representation of Jean du Rousset based on the Armagnac Breviary. It is described as the only known representation of him.
The original openings were simple loopholes. They were later widened and fitted with windows, some of which contain stained glass. The fireplace in the principal room began as an open hearth and was remodeled in the eighteenth century. Surviving projecting stone supports no longer correspond to the beams that carried the roof framework.
Outer Defenses and Estate
The keep originally had a defensive platform with battlements and was enclosed by a wooden palisade. Access was initially possible only by ladder. A stone enclosing wall was later built around it, with a gate, drawbridge, and moat. The moat was filled during the eighteenth century, while the enclosing wall and its associated defenses disappeared toward the end of the nineteenth century.
A stream formerly crossed the estate. It was later placed in a pressurized conduit by Éric Mayer-Schaller.
