Château de Lusignan
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Très Riches Heures du Book of Hours Duc de Berry Today in March: the Lusignan castle
The Lusignan Lusignan castle was the ancestral seat of the House of Lusignan and probably one of the largest castles in France.
The Lusignan castle was built at a location that is ideal for a natural defense system: a narrow promontory which dominates the deep valleys on each side. She was so impressive in the 12th century that the legend arose, their builders must have magical powers, such as the fairy Melusine, who is credited with the castle as a gift for her husband Raymondin.
The castle is shown in their largest dimension, as it was in the early 15th century in the Très Riches Heures of the Duke Jean de Berry, for which she was the favorite residence until his death in 1416: with a watchtower on the left, the clock tower next to it and the Tour Poitevine on the right side. After the death of the Duke was Lusignan short time in the possession of Jean de Valois, duc de Touraine († 1417 ) and then in the possession of the later King Charles VII
The place Lusignan developed below the Burgtor along the slope and was later himself surrounded by a city wall. The castle remained a strategically important investment in Poitou. 1574, during the Wars of a plan of defense was made , which is today in Paris at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. In the following century Lusignan was modernized by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, the military architect of Louis XIV and strengthened again, but then used as a prison and finally as a building for a school.
After the castle had already served longer as a quarry for building houses in the region, it was the Count of Blossac finally torn down in the 19th century to create a recreational area for the city of Lusignan. Today, there are still large parts of the foundation walls, some of them built in the steep rocks into it, parts of the Donjon, the base of the Tour Poitevine, cisterns and wine cellar and an underground passage, which at the time probably led to the church.