Château de Brézé

Château de Brézé is amazing! It is a château under a château which is something we have never seen before. Up until the 15th century, the Château de Brézé existed as a trodglodyte dwelling, 11 meters (36 feet) beneath the main courtyard of today.

Brézé Main Entrance with crenelated tower

Brézé courtyard clock

La Roche de Brézé (The Rock of Brézé) is the château beneath the Château de Brézé. This pre-eleventh century dwelling was carved out of the tuffa rock. The dry moat around the Château was dug when the above ground Château was built. There are various exits/entrances for the trodglodyte dwelling into the moat area. There are places where this original Château is 18 meters (59 feet) below ground.

Entrance  bridge across the dry moat (above left at the end of the bridge) to the current day Château.

Light wells

In the subterranean Château there are three main rooms that open to a light well. This well was dug to provide both light and air circulation yet the surface openings were too narrow to allow possible attackers to have access to the Château.

The walkways underground are narrow, steep in places and often low in height. When I read how far underground we were it definiteley encouraged my claustrophic fears at times.

Entrance stairwell to the subterranean Château de Brézé

We entered the Château de Brézé via an old grain silo as the original monolithic stairway has been walled up for many years.

This sloping passage led us out to the dry moat.

Subterranean Château is Fully Equipped

The Château under the Château lacks for nothing. Everything from kitchen to living quarters and stables to wine cellars is down here.  There is an ice house that is 7 meters deep (23 feet). It was lined with straw and packed with snow and ice during the winter. This snow and ice would last through the summer months, providing for food preservation. Even in the summertime it is a constant 53 degrees fahrenheit down here.

This is the baker’s kitchen – behind me is the niche in the wall where the baker could nap.

The underground bakery was enormous. The signage indicated that it could produce 100kg of bread in one setting. That’s 110 two-pound loaves of bread! This bakery is the largest of its type in France. There is even a cubbyhole, a man-sized niche carved into the wall, where the baker could take a little rest during the day.

Wine press

Wine Cellars

The wine cellars still had the presses and were in use up until 1976.  There is an 18meter long chute visible in the center of the photo that leads from the surface down to this room where the presses are kept so the harvested grapes were simply dropped down the chute to the presses.

The Barrel Room

Each barrel could hold up to 2200 litres of wine and were in use up until 1981. That black you see on the walls is a fungus that develops during the fementation process. Hmmmm….. I’ll think twice when I drink my next glass of wine.

Château de Brézé Vineyards

More information on the vineyards can be found at The Source Imports. 

This section of dry moat is near the wine cellar.

The round tower seen in the back left of the photo above is part of the Château dungeons. The dungeons were in use until 1740.

Private Apartments

We surfaced from our tour of the subterranean Château in the courtyard of the Renaissance Château de Brézé. The Château’s private apartments are open to the public for tours but they were not open on the day we visited.

Terrace in the courtyard

This Château is definitely the most unusual of all the Châteaux we have visited in France up to this point!