The Fortified Castle of the Fairy Mélusine and her medieval amusement parc in Saint-Jean-d'Angle

Description

Lord Lusignan bought himself a beautiful view on an ocean of marshes !

With its 20-metre-high walls and characteristic shell-keep construction, the castle dominated the marshes and offered a view of the ocean! Built on a reconstructed motte, the castle is surrounded by a moat and consists of a circular curtain wall containing residential buildings arranged around a central courtyard. Two towers flank the rampart, and the whole structure is very well designed for both passive and active defence.

At the beginning of the 17th Century, Louis' daughter, Charlotte Saint-Gelais of Lusignan, restored the Castle which had been damaged by successive musketry attacks. She then replaced the drawbridge with a dormant stone bridge, opened large windows and as the height of modernism, had latrines built. Later on, a French garden completed the transformation. The medieval fortress became a pleasant residence where the gentry of the area gathered.

In december 1994, Alain Rousselot acquired the Castle with a firm intention of renovating it. Once the vegetation was removed, the state of the place was disastrous. Important works were untertaken in collaboration with the Monuments of France and lasted from January 1995 to 2000.
The smallest hollows of the rempart were filled with less than 76.000 litters of a mixture of water and lime
A colossal work had been done, saving the castle in extremis.