Bussy Rabutin Castle - Burgundy Region - The French People's Favorite Monument This castle, located 45km from Limoges and overlooking the Graine and Vayres valleys, combines a variety of styles: medieval, Renaissance, and even avant-garde! Within its walls, which date back to the 12th century, it houses a museum of contemporary art. It was the Viscounts of Rochechouart who erected the very first buildings in the 12th century, namely a keep and its small gatehouse. At the time, the focus was still solely on "defense," and for good reason: the English and French were fiercely fought in the area! In the 15th century, during calmer times, the owners decided to soften the rusticity of the place: a Renaissance main building with graceful facades and a more comfortable and decorated interior was built. An arcaded gallery was also opened in the inner courtyard. A visit to the site offers two surprises: the hunting room, so named because a 16th-century mural depicts in color a day of deer hunting near the castle. The Hercules Gallery houses a large grisaille, a kind of gray enamel, depicting this powerful demigod. These works blend perfectly with contemporary art... for nearly thirty years since the museum opened!
What is the link between a limousine castle and the fall of a giant meteorite 200 million years ago?
It is one of the many mysteries that will be elucidated today at the Château de Rochechouart.
Third in your ranking, this cosmic castle is also a journey in time to itself.
To guide us, let's meet Annabelle.
This castle is still an extraordinarily architectural place.
We have both the medieval facade.
Here we are in the Renaissance court with its torso columns.
At the detour of each path, we see a monument, a different piece of history.
For example, here in the famous Renaissance portal that carries the weapons of the Rochechouart.
The Rochechouart family is found in all the history books.
Whether it's the Battle of Crecy, the Battle of Azincourt,
there will always be a Rochechouart.
But it will always be loyal to the King of France.
If Rochechouart's viscounts have often been good little soldiers,
they have not always been saints.
And the biggest scandal in family history
is now engraved in the strange roof of this dungeon.
Annabelle takes us to meet Christian, a historian, to conduct the investigation.
It is always that there is a slightly particular physiognomy.
It is missing in part the ridge, it is missing the roundabout.
We see that the roof is placed in a somewhat improvised way.
Built in the 13th century, the oldest tower of the castle is very mysterious.
But what is its secret?
In 1512, the Rochechouart viscount is accused of murder on one of his neighbors.
And the punishment imposed on him is that his dungeon must be shortened as a sign of humiliation.
Elementary, my dear Christian.
Another architectural mystery, the castle is open on its fourth side.
Bizarre, bizarre.
The investigation brings us back here to the French Revolution.
The castle is then seized, the last viscountess loses her head
and the castle, one of its towers, is a sign of victory over feudalism.
Only the base of the tower and the curtain subsist like ghosts of the past.
What is also interesting is that this castle,
instead of being a reconstruction of a precise time,
on the contrary, it bears all the marks of its history in all its facets.
The stones of the castle also have their cosmic secrets.
It is the country of the meteorite.
We owe this nickname to a major event that occurred nearly 200 million years ago.
The fall of a giant meteorite, nearly 1.5 km.
An incredible event that we are still talking about today.
Never has a meteorite done so much damage in France.
But the Rochechouarts did not expect to see craters.
The only extraterrestrial sign here is in these rocks.
Did people who used this know it came from a meteorite?
No. When they use these materials,
they use them as if they were going to use granite, volcanic rock or something else.
It is above all that the rock was there, present.
It is an important story because I do not know of any other castle
that is a castle built in a stone that does not exist anywhere else
and that is mixed with a stone of space.
Unique in its kind, the castle of Rochechouart seems to have really come from elsewhere.
