page_title: Château de Chastellux
section_title: Middle Ages
hierarchical_section_title: Château de Chastellux / History / Middle Ages
caption_attribution_description: Tour Saint Jean
context_page_description: Château de Chastellux is a French castle with elements from the eleventh, thirteenth, fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is located in Chastellux-sur-Cure in the Yonne, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
  This castle is still inhabited by the family who built it, a rarity in France. The oldest existing part of the building, the Saint-Jean tower, was built c. 1080 AD.
  The main building was the first part to be registered as a monument historique in 1925. The Saint-Jean tower and the surrounding buildings were later classified in 1976 and 1989, respectively.
context_section_description: The oldest evidence of presence of the lords of Chastellux on the current site of the castle is an account of a hearing at "the ancient Saint Jean tower in 1116". The hearing was about a property rights dispute between local barons and clergy of the Abbey of Molesme.
  For ten centuries, the castle of Chastellux did not stop growing, embellished and restored by successive generations of the family.
  Planted on a rocky peak surmounting the Cure, its strategic location helped to protect the castle from attack. Located on the borders of the Yonne and Nièvre, the fortress hosted armies that came to defend the borders of Burgundy, being an independent duchy at the time.
  In the twelfth century, the castle became a fortress, composed of tall towers linked by a thick battlement and guarded by a walkway. Wooden buildings are backed along the walls. They are used for livestock housing and the storage of animal feed. Comfort was nonexistent and homes played a very minor role compared to the "defensive" role of the fortress. The tower of St. John is the last remnant of this fortress. The tower, one of the oldest in Europe, consists of five levels. The staircase leading to the floors was cut into the thickness of the wall (a thickness of 3.5 meters at ground level). On the second floor is a prison officer and a dungeon accessed through an opening in the floor. The roof is topped with a lantern containing the warning bell, to alert the castle inhabitants of impending danger.
  For additional protection, there was a second wall with several smaller towers, two of which still exist today. A ditch joining the two valleys close this second wall is no longer present.
  In the 13th century, out of necessity, a larger building was built. The year 1240 was inscribed on stone walls, providing a date of construction of the guard room, which is the second oldest structure (after the tower of Saint-Jean).
  The scaffolding of tower of the Ermitage and the Archives still exists today. On the west side a keep was created as well as an archives tour and the defensive tower of Amboise.
  Throughout the history of the lords Chastellux remained near the Dukes of Burgundy and fought with them especially during the fall of Paris in 1417. The marshall of France, Claude de Chastellux defeated the Franco-Scottish army at the Battle of Cravant in 1423. This victory allowed him to receive several honorary privileges, such as the title of first hereditary canon of the Auxerre Chapter. He is buried in the chapel within the castle.
  Over the last fifteen years of his life, the Marshal of Chastellux enlarged the second main building located between the tower of the Archives and the bastion of the tower of Amboise and built the Octagonal Tower and the castle chapel.
caption: The Tower of Saint Jean
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