Exploring Château Marouatte: Crossing Into the Castle

 Exploring Château Marouatte: Crossing Into the Castle

Part 3

In Parts 1 and 2, I wandered through the working courtyards and then became distracted by all the small things growing underfoot. This time, I continued along the path and finally crossed from the outer courtyard into the château grounds themselves.

And this is where the feeling of the place changes completely.

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Before crossing into the château, I stopped for one of those views that seems to contain everything at once.

The pale stone walls and massive round towers rise behind a surprisingly soft garden. Pink flowering trees stand in front of the fortress walls, while herbs, perennials and seed heads fill the beds below. And sitting quietly at the edge is a weathered stone angel.

I love the contrast. The château is all mass, height and fortification. The garden is delicate, irregular and alive. The angel seems to occupy the space between the two.

This is also where the architecture begins to make more sense. Château Marouatte was constructed as a genuinely defensive complex, not simply a grand country residence. Historical descriptions identify two polygonal enclosures. The first contained the lower courtyard and service buildings. The second surrounded the château itself and was protected by four cylindrical towers. 

I had been exploring the first world.

Now I was entering the second.

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Between those two areas is something impossible to miss.

The moat.

There is no water in it. This is a dry moat, and historical descriptions of Marouatte specifically identify it as separating the two enclosures. One source describes it as cut into the rock. 

Looking down into it today, nature has taken over.

Dense vegetation covers the bottom. Ivy and other plants spill over the stone retaining walls. Small plants have rooted themselves directly into cracks in the masonry. The round tower rises almost vertically from this lower level, making it much easier to understand just how formidable this arrangement once was.

From the comfortable château grounds above, the tower seems picturesque.

From the bottom of that moat, it would have looked entirely different.

One photograph shows the lower portion of the tower particularly well. There is a small doorway near ground level, a heavily barred window above it and several openings piercing the thick masonry. Higher still are the projecting stone supports beneath the battlements.

The walls are not smooth or perfect. They are mottled with age, lichens and plants. That makes them more interesting to me. This is not architecture separated from its environment. After centuries, the stone has become habitat too.

Historical accounts describe Marouatte as a château of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that was heavily altered over time. It suffered enormous damage during the French Revolution, when portions were dismantled and the site was actually used as a stone quarry. Architect Maxime Dannery restored it in the late nineteenth century and added some architectural creations of his own. 

So what I am looking at is not one moment in history. It is layers of them.

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Then I came to the gate.

This may be one of my favorite architectural details so far.

A huge, dark wooden door sits beneath a stone arch. The timber is studded with iron, and the surrounding masonry is stained and weathered. Above the doorway is a pale stone plaque bearing the name:

MAROUATTE

The inscription below it has become extremely faint. I can make out fragments in the photograph, but not enough to confidently transcribe the complete wording, so I am resisting the temptation to guess.

That almost makes it better.

There is something appropriate about an inscription that has to be searched for in the stone.

The gate itself tells the story more clearly.

This was an entrance designed to control access.

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And then I walked through it.

This photograph captures the transition beautifully.

The enormous wooden doors stand open on either side, and beyond them the gravel path continues beneath mature trees. There is a wheelbarrow sitting casually beside the path.

Again, Château Marouatte does this wonderfully.

One moment I am contemplating defensive medieval architecture.

The next moment there is a wheelbarrow.

The official history of Grand-Brassac describes the original arrangement here as having two terraces separated by the moat, with access to the second by a drawbridge. Beyond it stood the towers, keep, chapel, residence, well and vaulted galleries. 

Walking through the gate today is easy.

Centuries ago, entering this space was supposed to be anything but easy.

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Once through, another tower appears ahead.

This one has a different personality. A tall cylindrical turret rises beside the wall, capped by a rounded stone roof. Shrubs have grown up around its base and partially conceal the wooden doorway.

Beside the entrance stands a solitary stone figure.

It is another one of those scenes at Marouatte that makes me stop. The curving gravel path, the old wooden door, the tower rising overhead, the greenery gradually reclaiming the masonry and a mysterious figure standing guard beside it.

Nothing here seems completely explained.

I like that.

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And then I looked up.

This photograph may convey the scale better than almost any other.

From inside the enclosure, the walls rise dramatically overhead. The massive keep dominates the view, with crenellations and projecting stonework silhouetted against the sky. A round tower anchors one corner. Tall stone walls surround the space, punctuated by windows that seem surprisingly elegant against such heavy defensive architecture.

It is here that I really began to understand Marouatte as both fortress and home.

The architecture tells both stories.

There are towers, battlements, thick walls, a moat and controlled entrances. But there are also large windows, residential buildings, gardens and courtyards. Historical descriptions likewise distinguish the residential northern building from the southern building that contained the chapel and kitchen. 

Panorama

Finally, I turned around for the broadest view.

The panorama ties everything together.

The great entrance stands open at one side. The massive château rises on the other. Gravel covers the courtyard. Plants soften the bases of the walls. A climbing plant covered in orange berries or flowers spreads across the pale stone. Potted plants line another wall, and a triangular shade sail has been stretched across one corner.

Medieval fortification meets everyday life.

That has become a recurring theme during my exploration of Château Marouatte.

From a distance, it is easy to see a castle.

Up close, it becomes a collection of individual places. A garden beside a tower. A flower growing from a wall. An angel overlooking a moat. A worn inscription above a gate. A wooden door that has probably been opened and closed more times than anyone could count.

And then there is that moment when you pass through the enormous gateway and realize you have crossed another invisible line.

I had left the outer courtyard behind.

I was now inside the château.

And, naturally, there were more doors to explore.