Château Barrière

Château Barrière is the only preserved example of chivalrous strongholds, built in the Middle Ages by feudal families.

Located near the old Saint-Etienne cathedral of the City, at the end of one of the main ways of the medieval city which joined it to the borough of Saint-Front, it bears the name of the Barrière family attested in 1245 and keeps it despite the disappearance of the lineage in the 15th century. It consists of a main building flanked by two towers installed on the bases of the ancient rampart of which only the keep remains.

During the Renaissance, it was adorned with a polygonal staircase tower, a flamboyant Gothic entrance door with sculpted decoration, endowed with a curly brace embrace, framed by pinnacles and cross windows. It was burnt down in 1575 by the Protestants... The construction is designated by the term of castle only from the XVIIth century when it is in ruins..Property of the city, it is classified historic building since 1862.