Château de Brézé et son fossé sec

Brézé (Bellevigne-les-Châteaux)

At Brézé, ten kilometres south of Saumur, the château stands at the edge of a dry moat dug into the limestone hill. The lands have belonged to the Brézé family since the 11th century. In 1448 Gilles de Maillé Brézé obtained from King René permission to fortify the place and had the moats dug (the Saumur tourist office gives 1449). The stone extracted was used for building; the moat is said to reach 18 metres in depth, which Wikipedia presents as the deepest in Europe. Troglodytic rooms run along its walls. An underground network dated to the 12th century is reported beneath the château, but the sources read give neither its extent nor the precise dates of its discovery. Arthur de Maillé had a Renaissance château rebuilt in the 16th century. In 1615 Louis XIII raised Brézé to a marquisate. In 1650 Claire-Clémence de Maillé Brézé, wife of the Grand Condé, passed the estate to him; in 1682 Condé exchanged it with Thomas de Dreux, whose title of marquis de Brézé was confirmed in 1685. The Dreux-Brézé family then had the building transformed in the neo-Gothic style with the architect René Hodé. The château now belongs to descendants of Colbert, according to the Gazette Drouot.

Getting there: In the village of Brézé, about ten kilometres south of Saumur; private property open to visitors, conditions to be checked on the official website. Coordinates: OpenStreetMap (Nominatim), consistent between two entries in the database.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound