CastleAngouleme (16)

Price :

$2,450,400

USD

Euro € EURAmerican Dollar ($ USD)British Pound (£ GBP)

Surface514 m²bedrooms5 bathrooms3 land8.3 ha

A 17th century castle with terraces registered as historical monuments, outbuildings, parkland and underground spring, set in 8 hectares of grounds overlooking the Charente valley. From the main road to the south, a large driveway lined with chestnut trees leads to the property gates, to the left of an L-shaped outbuilding to the north-west. A swimming pool at its northern end is protected by a walled enclosure, which extends from the outbuilding to the castle moat, where it becomes a retaining wall. To the right of the outbuilding, an avenue of gnarled hornbeams crosses the grassy areas where fruit trees have been planted. There are a dovecote and a communal oven a few metres further on in the direction of the castle. The main building, which can be reached in less than 50 metres across the grounds, overlooks the River Charente. It is built in an L-shape, which opens onto the sunlit valley it overlooks.
Its two wings, framed by dry moats to the east and west, are bordered by terraces above, with the eastern one, which juts out towards the valley, featuring high arches running the entire length of its base. The west wing, meanwhile, looks as if it is standing on a rock at its end, and the balustrade of the terrace closes off the courtyard on the lower level facing the River Charente, which flows around 300 m below. The castle walls are crowned with crenelations scalloped on machicolations. The low-sloped half-round tile roof is concealed by battlements and the ends of the gutters are in the shape of cannon mouths. The balustrade, at the edge of the dry moat above which the entrance to the residence stands, is only just visible. Beyond this, as you go down towards the west, a house facing the stream stands on the hillside. Moors and coppices stretch out towards the river. Finally, beyond the parkland to the west, grassed areas adjoin the woods on the edge of the property.