The Château de la Johannie is an historic castle in

Curemonte Curemonte (; Limousin: ''Curamonta'') is a commune in the Corrèze department in central France. It is a medieval village characterised by its three castles. In a fortified position on a ridge overlooking a valley on both its eastern and west ...

Corrèze Corrèze (; ) is a département in France, named after the river Corrèze which runs through it. Although its prefecture is Tulle, its most populated city is Brive-la-Gaillarde. Corrèze is located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, on the bo ...

Nouvelle-Aquitaine Nouvelle-Aquitaine () is the largest Regions of France, administrative region in France by area, spanning the west and southwest of Metropolitan France. The region was created in 2014 by the merging of Aquitaine, Limousin, and Poitou-Charentes ...

, France.

Toponymy

Johannes is the latin form of Jean or John and is named after the original owner or the house of Jean.

History

It was built circa 1308 on an old house built in 1083. It belonged to Hugues de Jean in the 14th century.Annick Tulasne-Moeneclaey, ''Les châteaux de Corrèze'', Paris : Nouvelles éditions latines, 1997, p. 1

/ref> It stayed in the Jean family (later known as the Johannie family) until 1498, when it was acquired by Vassal family, who owned 1/7th of Curemonte. Marguerite de la Johannie had married Pierre Vassal in 1460 who was the Lord of Tourette nearby in Betaille. It was acquired by Mathurin le Brun on 11 March 1623 after the widow of Jacques de Vassal, Marguerite de Belcastel de Campaniac and nephew Jean Vassal sold it. Then it was acquired by the d'Ambert family when Antoine d'Ambert married Agathe le Brun in 1594. It was acquired by the Plas family in 1693 who resided next door at

Châteaux de Saint-Hilaire et des Plas The Châteaux de Saint-Hilaire et des Plas are two historic castles in Curemonte, Corrèze, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. The Château de Saint-Hilaire, in the centre, was built in the 13th century. The Château des Plas, which surrounds it, was bu ...

. In 1830, the descendants of the Plas family left Curemonte, and Chateau de la Johannie was now in the hands of the Escaravage family which held it until 1971. It was then purchased by the Bescançon family as a second home and kept it until 1988 when it was purchased by the Pierre Wack family.

Architecture

This house consists of two wings. A square stair tower located at the centre of the two wings houses with a spiral staircase that serves the two buildings. The buildings had defensive

machicolation In architecture, a machicolation () is an opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement through which defenders could target attackers who had reached the base of the defensive wall. A smaller related structure that only protects key ...

's or loopholes at roof height, but they were removed in the past. The main entrance door, above ground level, would have been accessed by a wooded staircase and deck in the past. The windows become larger as the height above the ground increase. On the east side, there is a carved window. It has been listed as an official monument since 1981.

References

Castles in Nouvelle-Aquitaine Monuments historiques of Corrèze {{France-castle-stub