Photo : Cobber17 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Tour de l'Isleau
The Tour de l'Isleau, in the Charente-Maritime, is attributed to Henry III Plantagenet, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou. The first lord known with certainty appears in an act of homage of 1368: Pont de Vivonne, knight. In the 17th and 18th centuries the estate belonged to the barons of La Chaume, and in the 19th century it became a farm.
The quadrangular keep was once more than thirty metres high; it now stands 17 metres high and 11 metres wide. Its structure resembles early English buildings: the bases of the four corner towers that once rose above the terrace, itself protected by crenellations now gone, can still be made out. In keeping with medieval tradition, a door opens directly onto the first floor, reachable only by ladder, for the occupants' protection. The keep was once surrounded by a quadrangular wall flanked by corner towers, still standing in the early 19th century.
