Photo : Pierre Mairé / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Château de Targé
Of the 12th-century castle of Targé, in the Vienne, only the foundations of the keep remain, on which the bakehouse was built. Badly damaged during the Hundred Years' War, the castle was rebuilt in the 16th century. Dame Jeanne de Targé took its future in hand and, thanks to the fortunes of her three husbands, made it a remarkable building with fortifications, ditches, a drawbridge, towers and a keep, as shown in a well-known print by Chastillon of 1595.
The Turpin de Crissé family later refitted the interior, but lacking money, the castle again suffered serious damage. From 1763 the Marquis Louis Nicolas de Pérusse des Cars, already owner of Monthoiron, renovated it as a country residence; the present château is the one he and his wife knew. Sold as national property in 1793, it curiously remained with his daughter. The d'Harambure family lived here from 1859, followed by other owners until it was sold to Jean Mairé in 1963.
