Top 6 Castles around Saint-Vivien

Admission is subject to a fee. The fee is used to preserve the fort. A historical monument with a worthwhile website: https://www.fortliedot.com/

Animated projections (atmosphere, life and seabed) on the walls of some rooms of the fort. Visit of a part of the patrol path and the casemates. History of Fort Lierot and Fort Boyard.

Fort Liédot, nestled in the heart of the forest on the island of Aix, is a bastion of French history. Originally designed to be an impregnable fortress on the orders of Napoleon I, it was built between 1810 and 1834 and served many functions over the years, from coastal defense to political prison. Today, it is a place of memory and discovery, open to visitors who can explore its galleries and learn more about its fascinating past. With guided tours available, it's an invitation to travel through time to a place where art and history meet.

Overlooking the Grande Plage of Fouras-les-Bains, you cannot miss this gigantic structure: Fort Vauban. From the 11th century, the castellany of Fouras owed its growth to the taxes that the lords of Rochefort levied on boats using the Charente. In the 15th century, in place of the castle, destroyed during the War of Religion, a 30 meter high keep was built to monitor the sea from the top of its terrace. It was during the construction of the Rochefort Arsenal that the keep became the fort we know today. It then becomes a centerpiece of the defense system of the approaches to the Charente in order to prevent entry towards Rochefort.

Fort Fouras was actually built on the site of a Roman castle. Its purpose is to defend the mouth of the river against invasions. It was in service and actively occupied and used until 1927.

In February 1787, Marie Louise Henriette married a young officer, Étienne-Pierre de Montbron: the current owners of this castle are their direct descendants.

Built by order of Napoleon I, it began to be built in 1810 and construction took 24 years. It is built on the highest point of the island, just 9 meters above sea level. It was initially intended for defense but was also used as a prison and as a holiday camp for soldiers of the French army. The stone used to build the fort came from quarries in the town of Crazannes.

Built around 1771, the Château de Buzay in La Jarne bears witness to the art of living experienced by the city of La Rochelle when privileged links were established between its port and the colonies of the New World. Spanning the ages, Buzay is a "living" home of a family who has lived there since its construction. On May 1, 1771, Pierre-Étienne Harouard, Lieutenant General of the Admiralty of La Rochelle and his wife, Marie Agathe Petit du Petit Val, had their daughter, Marie Louise Henriette, 3, laid the first stone of Buzay. The "house in the fields" that they had built on their seigneury of La Jarne, six hundred steps from the Château du Beignon that Pierre Harouard, Pierre-Étienne's grandfather, bought in 1686, really too inconvenient for their taste. Subsequently, sixteen years later, in February 1787, Marie Louise Henriette married a young officer, Étienne-Pierre de Montbron: the current owners are their descendants in direct line. Buzay's plans are from Ducret, a Parisian architect close to Jacques Ange Gabriel, called by the bishop of La Rochelle, Mgr de Crussol d'Uzès, to rebuild the cathedral in ruins after the siege of 1628. Without anyone knowing how, Harouard obtained the plans through the intermediary of the bishop, his friend, and appealed to Henri Tourneur, entrepreneur from La Rochelle, to implement them. From then on, plan in hand, with the continual assistance of Harouard who supervised the work and specified his wishes in the details of the execution, Henry Tourneur built Buzay and his outbuildings, the gates enclosing the courtyard being in place, in five years, between 1771 and 1776. The performers were local craftsmen, Dutour master mason in La Jarne, Wise master carpenter in Salles, Ferry and Girard stonemasons in La Rochelle, Robert ironworker in La Rochelle to name only the main ones. Between courtyard and garden, a completed type of this Louis XVI neoclassical style, recalling that it was in 1750 that the discovery of Pompeï began, little by little unearthed from the ashes that had buried it. Our architects were reconnecting with their great elders of yesteryear. The hypostyle on the courtyard side, the curved columns, the Ionic capitals, the pediment: so many obvious borrowings from ancient Greek architecture. https://www.chateaudebuzay.fr