Photo : Jack ma / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Château de Bayers
Built on an open rocky base, the Château de Bayers stands in the Charente valley. A fortified house with a square keep existed here from the early 12th century; it was later given a double curtain wall. At the end of the 15th century the château was extensively transformed, and in the 17th century various defensive features were removed and replaced by a large terraced garden with a balustrade overlooking the Charente valley.
During the Revolution it became national property before being sold to a farmer. It gradually deteriorated until it fell into ruin in the mid-20th century. A remarkable restoration carried out since the 1970s has returned it to its state before it was abandoned. To the north, along the ditch, the first curtain wall, much altered, still shows a section of the Romanesque keep. The valley courtyard, the residence and the tower form a unified whole, standing apart from any other building.
