A little history of Varaignes castle
And also
The tops
A first keep was raised in the 13th century. It was part of a big fief, which belonged to Montbron family. In 1462, the castle fell by marriage to Pérusse des Cars, when Marie de Montbron married Gauthier de Pérusse, king Charles VIII’s chamberlain.
In the 15th century, this family raised the polygonal tower with its nice Gothic portal, decorated with curly kales... oh, the portal! We can’t see it, because the owners sold it to the Americans in 1928!
Jean des Cars, prince of Carency, was king’s lieutenant in Brittany: he raised the Renaissance wing in the middle of the 16th century. And for the castle itself, it was a big quadrilateral with a keep and a vast inner courtyard on the middle.
The big keep (13th century) is the first thing we notice, with its covered way and its crenelates! The castle was saved and restored: it houses a museum about charentaises, famous slippers from Charente!