Château de la Guyonnière

The Château de la Guyonnière dates from the 14th century. Despite alterations in the 15th and 16th centuries, it retains a distinctly feudal appearance. It forms a quadrilateral flanked by towers, one of which houses a dovecote. It is entered through a fortified gate. The gardens, accessed by a small drawbridge forming a postern, are surrounded by deep moats and consist of nine medieval-inspired squares, where flowers, vegetables, melliferous, medicinal, aromatic plants, fruits, old roses, shrubs and fruit trees coexist.

The Château de la Guyonnière is surrounded by moats. The castle, the moats, and the castle chimneys were listed as a historical monument on March 4, 1986.

This garden in Deux-Sèvres is an island that one visits once the drawbridge is crossed, before discovering a series of themed enclosures. It is a contemporary one-hectare garden created in 1987 by landscape architect Alain Richet, respecting the medieval spirit. It is divided into 9 enclosures beyond the moats surrounding the manor, on the site of the 14th-century "ouche" which forms an island surrounded by deep moats, fed by springs. To access it, one must cross the moats by means of a pedestrian drawbridge, in working order, from a passage between the castle and its stables. Each enclosure consists of a mixture of different plants: fruits, flowers, soup plants, herbs, poison plants, melliferous plants, small fruits, old and botanical roses, old fruit trees:

a bee enclosure (honey flies) with its 4 old-fashioned beehives (without supers) recreated from a 15th-century illumination, and its melliferous plants; a festive or paradise enclosure with a pond, a bench covered with woodruff, violet and wild thyme, around a very old pear tree, and a plant stage shaded by old trees supporting roses, intended to host musicians, comedians or other artists offering concerts, poetry, mimes, stories, ... throughout the beautiful days and evenings from May to September; a small fruit enclosure; two collection shrub enclosures; a butterfly enclosure; three medieval plant enclosures with varied uses: veronica enclosure with tansies, burnets, euphorbias, quaking grass, willow enclosure with peonies, acanthus, lilies of the valley, borage, irises, cabbage enclosure or poison enclosure, depending on the seasons with crambes, calamints, aconites, centaureas, columbines, anthemis and chamomiles. These enclosures are connected by two wooden arbors twisted by fire, covered with vines and roses. It has been labeled a Remarkable Garden since 2004.

From June 1st to July 13th and from August 20th to September 30th, daily reserved for groups on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings, reserved for individuals on Thursday afternoon and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with free accompanied visit hours: 10 am to 12 pm, 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm. Guided tours are possible all year round by appointment. All summer, musicians, storytellers or actors perform in the festive enclosure.

Beaulieu-sous-Parthenay

Resource related to architecture: Mérimée

Châteaux, manoirs, logis des Deux-Sèvres, éditions Patrimoines et Médias 1993, (ISBN 2-910137-04-X) Frédéric Chassebœuf, Châteaux en Poitou-Charentes, Prahecq, Patrimoines et Médias, coll. « Belles visites », 2006, 173 p. (ISBN 2-910137-91-0, OCLC 71887670) Portal of French castles Portal of Deux-Sèvres Portal of French historical monuments