The ruined Château of Marqueyssac

Due to a flurry of guests at our B&B this half-term week along with adjacent table d'hôtes meals to prepare and serve I have not been able to publish any blogs.  So now with a little more sanity restored I find myself once more at the machine...

 

The château lies up the road on the left

One of the many things I love about France is the ease at which one can sense the past.  One can literally smell it on occasion, as at Oradour-Sur-Glane where, despite the passing of almost 70 years, you can still smell the charred timbers of the village buildings, which are just a small part of the atrocious legacy of the 2nd Panzer Division (Das Reich) as they passed this way on that fateful day of 10th June 1944.  The fleeing Germans were on their way to bolster the German defence of the Normandy coast in a vain attempt to stem the flow of Allied troops swarming onto the beaches, following the D-Day landings of June 6th 1944.

 

The once proud facade still stands foursquare

History is all around and that history is particularly rich around these parts.  Unlike the UK where any ruined and abandoned buildings have either been completely trashed or Health and Safety regulations have made it almost impossible 'to explore', in France it is refreshing, not only to readily find these buildings, sometimes literally on the edge of the road, but then , having done so, to be able to wander at will (or so it seems) amongst the ruins without disturbance.  One such ruin is to be found just outside the village of the wonderfully named Saint Pantaly d'Ans.  The village is situated just east of Perigueux on the road to Hautefort.

 

The view from the back.  Here, one can still sense the presence of peope past

On the outskirts of the village lie the ruins of the Château de Marqueyssac.  Built sometime in the X1V century.  In 1420 it was taken by the English captain, Jean de Marqueyssac who then killed all the local lords from Saint Pantaly, Mote and Bruzac.  Despite its brutal start it then seems to have defied the tumultuous events of the Wars of Religion and the French Revolution.  Alas, it was not man who has done for the château but nature itself.  During 1952 one of the terrible storms that periodically fall upon the region visited the Château de Marqueyssac which at this point was still in very good condition.  This caused much destruction to the fabric of the building.  In doing so it sowed the seeds for the ruin that greets one today.

 

This view takes in the round tower in the foreground and the square tower behind

This is the view If you look up as you enter the Barbican

 

Tailored from stone, a beautifully formed 180º firing aperture

 

Your carriage awaits Madame, but for who? A scene from the carriage room