Photo : Fagairolles 34 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Château de Colombières
The château de Colombières, in the Calvados, is a fortified house turned dwelling. Nicknamed "the lookout of the marshes", it occupied a strategic site near the Bessin marshes. The first mentions go back to the early eleventh century, no doubt a motte held by the Colombières family, members of which took part in the conquest of England in 1066.
The Bacon du Molay family, who took the name Colombières, built the medieval castle. The English seized it in 1418. The Bricquevilles added Renaissance towers. In 1755, the tax farmer René Hatte acquired it and gave it a more classical look.
Quadrangular in plan, surrounded by moats, it is flanked by cylindrical towers with machicolations; the present form of the main body dates largely from the late fifteenth century. It has been protected as a historic monument since 1927.
