Chateau de Chambonneau

The Château de Chambonneau is a castle in the commune of Gizay in the Vienne département of France that still shows good parts of the original "chateau-fort". It is built down a hill, close to the Miosson (a tributary of the Clain river). The original castle dates from the time of Philippe VI, the beginning of the 14th century.The remaining original parts represent the keep and 75% of the towers and lower buildings.Instead of building on the site of the former stronghold, as was usually done, they decided to build the new castle at the foot of the hill and to profit from the proximity of the river to construct moats.

The castle was built to a quadrangular plan, with round towers at the corners, two other towers (rounded on the exterior only) in the middle of the longer sides, and two more towers to defend the gate. The gate was protected by a châtelet. All of the towers were approximately 17m high, the square keep 26m.