The City and its suburbs - La Trimouille

Depart from the town of La Trimouille, latitude 46.4664700 (N 46° 27’ 59”), longitude 1.0398600 (E 1° 2’ 23”)

• Departure Tourist Office

• To discover the canton of Trimouille, do not hesitate to push the door of the tourist office which will provide you all the good addresses and sites to discover the canton of the Trimouille, a sector bocager rich in inheritance (mills, castles, chapel...) with many hiking trails. A heritage trail with explanatory panels will allow you to discover the architectural treasures of La Trimouille. Ask also the car circuits concocted by the OT (also available on Circuits de France) to not miss anything in the sector.

• The convent of the Poor Clares

• Former convent of the Poor Clares, this house with visible rubble now belongs to private individuals who have restored it. This convent was founded "by the Duke of La Tremouille with the permission of the bishop in the year 1632". In 1727 there were twenty-three sisters, four of whom were conversant sisters. The order of Poor Clares or poor ladies was founded in 1212 by St. Clare, spiritual daughter and disciple of St. Francis of Assisi. In the sixteenth century, the Poor Clares taught the little girls of the village "to serve the inhabitants." Moreover, the nuns paid a sum of six thousand pounds "for the construction of our church and the buildings of our community which is currently in good state. This suggests that the constructions had to take place in the mid-seventeenth century or early eighteenth. This convent had dependencies up to the ordinary oven. Note the entrance door lintel carved in brace with molded jambs. The establishment of the Poor Clares still existed in 1789, then it was sold as national property in 1794.

• House of the fifteenth or sixteenth century

• Remodeled in the eighteenth century, it was modified in 1965 to make
• a post office. From the late Middle Ages, there are only a few window sills on the south wall. At the second level, we can see a small bay with a projecting support, a walled oblong bay of which one can distinguish only the protruding support. The last bay on the right also has a protruding support and a lintel decorated with a hug. In the eighteenth century, the windows of the north wall were enlarged. The moldings of the berries disappeared during the twentieth century changes.

• The national stud

• Colbert created royal studs in 1665, but this administration
• very long to take shape. It was suppressed in 1790 by the Revolution, then reestablished under Napoleon 1st in 1806, then again suppressed under the reign of Napoleon III. In 1874, a law was passed restoring stud farms and defining breeding districts. The horses welcomed in this stud were Anglo-Arab thoroughbreds. This stud farm was a riding station which depended on the national stud farm of Saintes. It closed in 1992. On the opposite building, there is the stone linkage of an old filled semicircular door.

• Traces of the fortifications

• Fortifications and ditches were to surround this small town in medieval times since in the seventeenth century, the ruins of these defense works were used to distinguish the "City" of its suburbs. In 1484. Prisoners were detained in an old tower or turret of the castle "Also at this place of La Trimouille wall nails unfinished, at the ung quince of which has a small round turret, in which low treading and there was accustomed of mectre formerly the prisoners, which is now melted and vague. "

• House of the fifteenth century

• In front of Aristide Briand Street, this house deserves attention. It is true that it has kept the fifteenth century a large window on the floor. This bay has its uprights and lintel molded. The mullions and crosspieces have disappeared but one can still see a trace on the lintel. They may have been removed in the nineteenth century to avoid the tax on windows. This house is interesting because it is typical of the urban building stretching in height, since it could not in width. The ground floor indicates that it was certainly the shop of a merchant. The stall should be on the left, behind the front door could be the stairs to go upstairs. This explains that the window of the floor is off-center

• Place of the old banal oven

• The building at the corner of these two streets on its eastern side
• a day break. On the west wall, rue Notre-Dame, you can see on the second level, a chamfered arc segment bay. The window sill is slightly salient.

• Castrale Mace 10th century

• The mound on which was built the castle was named "La Mothe". From the latter we can not distinguish anything except the location of the mound near the banks of the river that runs through the town, the Benaize. In the archives of 1484, it appears that the castle was already destroyed for a long time: "Instead of La Trimouille has no chastel place strong, fors a mothe on which has a grant hangs of old wall, demonstrating that otherffoiz, long has, had the said motte chastel and strong place, and there is this place of La Trimouille houses do not room for my said lords (of La Trimouille)... "(sic)

• The Moulin de la Font (private property)

• the mill of La Font rebuilt around 1850 on the site of an old mill. Follow the river to the Place de la Liberté to discover the mill of Gersant (said Perrin) mentioned in the 15th century.

• Moulin de Gersant xve

• At the castle, on the left bank of the river, were built two mills, extremely close together, the mill of Gersant, current mill Perrin and the mill of La Font. The suburb of Gersant gave its name to the mill built near the bridge. In 1833, on the decision of the municipal council, was destroyed the gate of the so-called Gersant pillory, which in modern times delimited the seigniories of the dukes of La Trimouille and those of La Rivière, Gersant and Régnier.

• The castle of the River (private property)

• [At the next small bridge on your left take direction Loutre 1st right and 1st left, take the small path along the Benaize. After 2 km of shaded course] you will see the magnificent castle of the River.Il does not visit, but take the trouble to circumvent it on the right and go down to the river where you will have a nice point of view on the site.Some summers it is possible to cross the river by a ford nearby.

• The church of saint-pierre of the tramp (private can not be visited)

• Romane, it was decommissioned following the Revolution, then sold to individuals in 1794. She served then as agricultural buildings. Split into two parts, it has been used as a barn, stables and hayloft. Currently, two owners share it.
• The church certainly underwent several reworkings during the Middle Ages. Witness the three blocks of different heights. The bedside, the lowest, the nave and the fore-nave.
• The sanctuary was to be completely covered with murals, traces are still visible in many places.
• These murals may date from about 1160-1180 but it is a pure hypothesis. They are in very bad condition, the pinkish color that appears on the plaster betrays the presence of a microscopic alga which causes the detachment of the plaster, causing the mortar to fall in plates. Anyway, the existence of these murals of a very high quality reflects the past wealth of this modest little church.