The Château de Domeyrat is a castle of

Auvergne Auvergne (; ; oc, label=Occitan, Auvèrnhe or ) is a former administrative region in central France, comprising the four departments of Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Auverg ...

. It is located in the

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

Domeyrat Domeyrat (; oc, Daumairac) is a commune in the Haute-Loire department in south-central France. Geography The Senouire flows north-northwest through the commune and crosses the village. Population See also *Communes of the Haute-Loire departm ...

, in the

Haute-Loire Haute-Loire (; oc, Naut Léger or ''Naut Leir''; English: Upper Loire) is a landlocked department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of south-central France. Named after the Loire River, it is surrounded by the departments of Loire, Ardèche ...

department of central

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. It has been listed since 1983 as a ''

monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

'' by the

French Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture (french: Ministère de la Culture) is the ministry of the Government of France in charge of national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and protection of the arts (visual, ...

History

A first mention of the castle was in the inventory of Alphonse de Poitiers'

vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. W ...

s, done between 1250 and 1260. It was then a property of the Papabeuf family. The lineage seems to have been extinct in 1348, probably due to the

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

; the castle went from hand to hand and may have been abandoned during the

Hundred Years' War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French Crown, ...

. Adhemar de Jori (de Jory), was the Lord of Domeyrat in 1375. In 1387 the new lord of Domeyrat was Pons de Langheac,

seneschal The word ''seneschal'' () can have several different meanings, all of which reflect certain types of supervising or administering in a historic context. Most commonly, a seneschal was a senior position filled by a court appointment within a royal, ...

of Auvergne. His son inherited the title in 1421. He has deeply restructured the castle and is considered as the second builder, hence there are different opinions about the date of construction. The de Langheac family kept the castle until 1656. The edifice was less and less maintained by its successive owners and began to be dismantled during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

. Bought by the ''

Conseil général The departmental councils ( French: ''conseils départementaux''; singular, ''conseil départemental'') of France are representative assemblies elected by universal suffrage in 98 of the country's 101 departments. Prior to the 2015 French depa ...

'' of Haute-Loire, it was listed as a Historical monument in 1983. The castle is now managed by an association, «Et Tant d'Arts...», performing entertainment on

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

theme.

Architecture

On the slope of a small hill, the Château de Domeyrat overlooks the village and the valley of the

Senouire The Senouire (; oc, Senoira) is a long river in the Haute-Loire'' département'', south-central France. Its source is at Sembadel. It flows generally west. It is a right tributary of the Allier into which it flows between Fontannes and Vieill ...

River. A rectangular

curtain A curtain is a piece of cloth or other material intended to block or obscure light, air drafts, or (in the case of a shower curtain), water. A curtain is also the movable screen or drape in a theatre that separates the stage from the auditorium ...

with a round tower at each angle protects the main building and the

keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...

, without courtyard; it is surrounded by a second ''

enceinte Enceinte (from Latin incinctus: girdled, surrounded) is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the position. For ...

''. Two of the angle towers are decorated with paintings of the 16th century (hunting scenes in the north-western tower, religious scenes in the south-western tower, where the chapel was.

References

Sources

After the article

, in French Wikipedia

External links

Château de Domeyrat
- former official site (Archive.org) Castles in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Châteaux in Haute-Loire Monuments historiques of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Historic house museums in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Museums in Haute-Loire {{France-castle-stub