Château de Sigy-le-Châtel

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The Château de Sigy-le-Châtel is a ruined castle in the commune of Sigy-le-Châtel in the Saône-et-Loire département of France.

Castle Fortified residential structure of medieval Europe

A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages by predominantly the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Usage of the term has varied over time and has been applied to structures as diverse as hill forts and country houses. Over the approximately 900 years that castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls and arrowslits, were commonplace.

The commune is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada, Gemeinden in Germany or comuni in Italy. The United Kingdom has no exact equivalent, as communes resemble districts in urban areas, but are closer to parishes in rural areas where districts are much larger. Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and are vested with significant powers to manage the populations and land of the geographic area covered. The communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France.

Sigy-le-Châtel Commune in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France

Sigy-le-Châtel is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire département in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France.

Contents

Description

The castle was built on a rocky outcrop dominating a pass.

It is one of the oldest castles in Mâconnais. It consisted of a large irregularly shaped enceinte made of thick curtain walls. The entrance, to the north towards the plateau, was flanked by two fortified semicircular towers.

Mâconnais

The Mâconnais district is located in the south of the Burgundy wine region in France, west of the Saône river. It takes its name from the town of Mâcon. It is best known as a source of good value white wines made from the Chardonnay grape; the wines from Pouilly-Fuissé are particularly sought-after. Almost all the wine made in the Mâconnais is white wine. Chardonnay is the main grape grown in the district—in fact, there is a village of that name in the far north of the region. Some plantations of Gamay and Pinot noir are made into red and rosé Mâcon, making up no more than 30% of the total wine production. Gamay is grown in the Beaujolais cru of Moulin-à-Vent, which extends into the Mâconnais, but has little in common with the wines north of the border.

Enceinte main defensive enclosure of a fortification

Enceinte is a French term denoting the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the position. For a settlement it would be the main town wall with its associated gatehouses and towers and walls.

Curtain wall (fortification) defensive wall of a fortification

A curtain wall is a defensive wall between two towers (bastions) of a castle, fortress, or town.

The only remains are some stretches of wall, the bases of two large circular towers pierced by cannon positions and, at the western end, the corner of a brick building with a bartizan.

Bartizan

A bartizan, also called a guerite or échauguette, or spelled bartisan, is an overhanging, wall-mounted turret projecting from the walls of late medieval and early-modern fortifications from the early 14th century up to the 18th century. Most frequently found at corners, they protected a warder and enabled him to see his surroundings. Bartizans generally are furnished with oillets or arrow slits. The turret was usually supported by stepped masonry corbels and could be round, polygonal or square.

The castle is privately owned and not open to the public.

History

Arms of
Valois-Angouleme Blason comte fr Angouleme (Valois).svg
Arms of
Valois-Angoulême

Origins

House of Luzy

House of Sauzet

House of Marzé

House of Trezettes

House of La Guiche

House of Valois-Angoulême

Louis-Emmanuel dAngoulême

Louis-Emmanuel de Valois was count of Auvergne and duke of Angoulême.

Charles IX of France King of France

Charles IX was King of France from 1560 until his death from tuberculosis. He ascended the throne of France upon the death of his brother Francis II. Charles was the twelfth king from the House of Valois, the fifth from the Valois-Orléans branch, and the fourth from the Valois-Orléans-Angoulême branch.

Guillotine apparatus designed for carrying out executions by beheading

A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame in which a weighted and angled blade is raised to the top and suspended. The condemned person is secured with stocks at the bottom of the frame, positioning the neck directly below the blade. The blade is then released, to quickly fall and forcefully decapitate the victim with a single, clean pass so that the head falls into a basket below.

Other arms

Bibliography

See also

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References

    Coordinates: 46°33′22″N4°34′24″E / 46.55611°N 4.57333°E / 46.55611; 4.57333

    Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

    A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.