Château de Coulonges-sur-l'Autize

In the original medieval village, near the church, there was a castle built in the 11th century, which is believed to have been located at a place called Pont au Son. In 1473, after the death of his brother Charles de Guyenne, Louis XI authorized the Madaillan d’Estissac family to rebuild the castles of Coulonges-les-Royaux and Bois-Pouvreau, previously razed by order of the same king, concerning the limits of Charles de Guyenne's appanage. The treaty was signed in Coulonges-les-Réaux, now Coulonges-sur-l'Autize, on September 18, 1469, during a reconciliation between Louis XI and Charles de Guyenne. In fact, so that Charles would move away from Île-de-France and Burgundy, the king chose for him Guyenne, reconquered only about fifteen years earlier, a country where there were still quarrels between clans or parties. This was exactly the king's objective, a geopolitical choice. Following the death of Duke Charles in 1472, for lack of an heir, the king obtained several great captains and advisors of the deceased and the attachment of Guyenne to the crown, without fighting. Work began in the 16th century with a square pavilion, placed at the intersection of the two current wings. The initial overall plan may not have been the one realized. Indeed, around 1540, a new architect whose name is unknown arrived on the site. He seems to have come from Oiron and his influence is felt through a significant change in architectural style. The work continued with the construction of the east wing and then the south wing with the chapel and the arcaded gallery. The work was completed in 1568. A northwest wing may have been planned; its actual realization remains hypothetical. The castle was plundered and partially demolished in the 18th century, before the Revolution. Some elements of the architectural decor were acquired from 1849 by the etcher Octave de Rochebrune to be installed and thus preserved in the Château de Terre-Neuve in Fontenay-le-Comte, who would reproduce them on some of his prints, and where they are kept. From the end of the 19th century until the 1960s, the castle housed classrooms for the municipal school and college. In the 1940s, the chapel served as a justice of the peace court. In November 2017, one of its ornate metal window latches dated 1550, a classified movable object found during excavations carried out on site in 1993, was integrated into the castle's exhibition rooms. Property of the Coulonges-sur-l'Autize Town Hall since 1933, the castle is now open for visits every summer to discover its multifaceted history.

The d’Estissac family, originating from a noble family of Aunis and lords of Mussidan-en-Périgord, arrived in Poitou in 1429 as seneschal of Poitou. This was Amaury d’Estissac (†1457), a knight alongside Joan of Arc at the Siege of Orléans, seneschal of Poitou, then simultaneously seneschal of Saintonge, notably from 1436 to 1451, always first chamberlain to the Dauphin Louis, future Louis XI. He bought the seigneury of Coulonges-les-Royaux around 1447, before his resignation in 1451. Due to the absence of an heir, Jean de Madaillan, son of Lancelot de Madaillan and Jeanne d'Estissac, presumably his nephew, was instituted by Amaury d'Estissac and Marguerite Harcourt, his wife, and succeeded to the name and arms of Estissac on March 22, 1458. However, he became chamberlain to Louis XI's brother, Charles de Guyenne, who was always seeking an alliance with Charles the Bold while wishing to marry his daughter Marie de Bourgogne since the League of Public Weal. His wife, Jeanne de la Brousse, gave birth to two sons, Bertrand and Geoffroy, who both rose to prominence. The elder son, Bertrand de Madaillan d'Estissac, pursued a military career and accompanied Charles VIII and Louis XII during their Italian campaigns. In reward, he was appointed seneschal of Agenais, seneschal of Périgord, lieutenant of the government of Guyenne, and after his marriage to the niece of the powerful Cardinal Philippe de Luxembourg, mayor and captain of Bordeaux. His younger brother, Geoffroy de Madaillan d'Estissac, meanwhile, became abbot of Cadouin and Notre-Dame-de-Celles-sur-Belle in 1515, then was appointed bishop of Maillezais in 1518, thanks to King Francis I. Geoffroy remained the lord of the castle until his death in 1543. Furthermore, he was one of the patrons and protectors of François Rabelais. Thus, these brothers were well acquainted with Renaissance ideas, including those of architecture. It was Louis de Madaillan d'Estissac, Bertrand's son, husband of Anne de Daillon, who completed the construction of the castle; monograms forming their first names are visible on panels reassembled by Rochebrune in his engraver's workshop at the Château de Terre-Neuve. Louis's son, Charles d'Estissac, did not have the chance to inherit the castle after his father's death. He died suddenly in 1586 at the age of 23 following a duel gone wrong. It was he who accompanied Montaigne on his trip to Italy. Besides the links between Italy and Poitou at that time, Coulonges benefited from the proximity and influence of the city of Fontenay-le-Comte, an important intellectual and cultural center during the Renaissance. In 1569, during the troubled period of the Wars of Religion, the royal family stayed at the castle for the Christmas festivities on their return from the Battle of Saint-Jean-d'Angély. Present were: King Charles IX, his mother Catherine de Médicis, his brother Henri III, and his sister Marguerite, better known as Queen Margot.

The castle's kitchens are semi-underground and stretch over half of the monument, with three rooms in a row. Their vaults are supported by a central column. This design is quite similar to the contemporary kitchens of the Château d'Ecouen, but those of Coulonges feature a rich decorative program and great attention to masonry, which is all the more curious as they are deployed in service areas. Particular care has been given to the sculptures, the worked jambs of the fireplaces in two of the three rooms, cartouches, vault bands, with keystones depicting Medusa. This architectural choice remains an enigma for researchers.

The castle has been classified as a historical monument since 1994, while the remains of the South gallery have been listed since 1993. It currently houses the town hall and the tourist office of the commune.

Marie-Thérèse Réau, Fontenay-le-Comte - Vendée / Images du Patrimoine (ADAGP, November 1998).

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