Sigy-le-Châtel Castle: A Medieval Fortified Residence in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.1
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- French
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page7 sections
History
Sigy-le-Châtel Castle is a medieval fortified castle in France, built as a seigneurial residence in the eleventh century. It is among the oldest castles in the Mâconnais, the historic region around Mâcon that now lies largely within Saône-et-Loire. The site was first recorded in the tenth century and later served as the principal residential and administrative seat of the local feudal lord.
Early lordship and reconstruction
During the eleventh-century division of the County of Chalon, the fief of Sigy passed to the lords of Bourbon and Luzy. A reconstruction followed in the twelfth century. Renaud de Luzy was lord of Sigy in 1203. In 1266, Archambaud de Sauzet, lord of Chanay, married Sybille de Luzy, lady of Sigy. Their son Humbert de Sauzet succeeded them at the end of the thirteenth century, and in 1314 Alix, described as either his widow or his sister, was lady of Sigy.
Later medieval and Renaissance ownership
Jean de Marzé held the lordship in 1361. In 1373, the marriage of Hugues de Trezettes to Guillemette de Marzé linked Sigy to the Trezettes family. Girard de la Magdeleine, bailiff of Auxois, acquired the castle in 1535. Philibert de La Guiche was lord of Sigy in 1560.
In 1583, Claude de Rochefort of the Luçay-le-Mâle branch became lord of Sigy through his marriage to Catherine de la Magdeleine, daughter of Girard and lady of Sigy and Beauvoir-en-Auxois. Their son Jean de Rochefort was dispossessed by decree in 1604 in favor of Philibert de La Guiche.
Abandonment and the end of the seigneurial era
In 1629, Marie-Henriette de La Guiche, Philibert de La Guiche’s daughter, married Louis-Emmanuel d’Angoulême, a grandson of Charles IX, who was king of France from 1560 to 1574. The fortress was then abandoned. It later returned to the La Guiche family through inheritance. Amable-Charles, marquis de La Guiche and the last seigneur of Sigy, was guillotined in 1794.
Remains
Fortifications on the rocky spur
The castle occupies a rocky spur overlooking the pass on which it stands. Its large, irregular enclosure was bounded by thick curtain walls, the connecting defensive walls between towers. On the northern side, facing the plateau, the entrance was flanked by two solid semicircular masonry towers.
Surviving fabric includes stretches of the curtain walls and the bases of two large circular towers. These tower bases retain arrow slits and gun ports, narrow defensive openings intended for bows, firearms, or small artillery. The western corner of another building also survives, constructed in medium ashlar masonry and fitted with a bartizan, a small projecting defensive turret attached to a corner or upper edge.
Chapel capitals
The castle also had a chapel. Six capitals attributed to the castle were accidentally found in the summer of 1975 in the cellar of the house belonging to M. Gonneaud, the commune’s mayor. Their discovery provides surviving material associated with the castle’s religious space.
