Chateau de Brézé
The chateau at Brézé is in the middle of the town behind a high stone wall. There was small castle from before 1000AD and it extended below the surface. The stone is a chalk and fairly easily worked. Later, the castle was extended using stone obtained from deepening the moat. It is now the deepest dry moat in Europe. There are several kilometres of tunnels and caverns below the chateau, most of which have not been recently explored. The above ground chateau is in the form of a U. The oldest wing is the private apartments of the owners. The back of the U comprises an open cloister on the ground floor and a long gallery on the first floor. On the top floor or attics were servants quarters. The Renaissance wing is open to the public and contains some interesting rooms. There is also a very big Pigeonnier - it held 3700 pigeons.
Oldest Wing Back Moat Embrasures
The Renaissance wing is undergoing repairs. We visited Brézé on Saturday 24th May 2008.
We also visited Montreuil-Bellay but the castle was closed to the public for a few days. I took some external shots.
