Thursday, September 05, 2013

On this day in pre-history

Well, I'm sure something happened, but I don't know what. Maybe this museum would have a clue. It's the museum of pre-history on the château grounds in Le Grand-Pressigny. One day I will have to visit the inside and check it out.

A back-side view of the castle with the modern pre-history museum in the middle.

The big tower on the left is what's left of the castle's twelfth century keep, called a donjon in French. There is another tower, an impressive sixteenth century gallery (part of the seigniorial logis), and bits of ramparts here and there. Also intact is the castle's main entrance portal. There are beautiful views of town and the river valleys from inside the castle grounds.

6 comments:

  1. Walt,
    if you have any interest in pre-history, then the museum is very well worh a visit.
    It also has a very good section on the history of the castle...
    from keep to chateau to farm buildings after the Revolution...
    one of the really good results from the building of a good interpretation centre was the pre-build archeological dig.
    That threw up a lot of information about the building periods and the use.

    A great shame, however, is that they have closed the access to that sixteenth century tower...
    it had amazing scraffiti all over the walls of the staircase [which was a wonder in it's own right].

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  2. That's a beautiful complex (although I'm not personally fond of the roof color on the museum). What an interesting idea for a museum. I'm looking forward to your visit and info.

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    1. Mitchell....
      those of us who live in GP aren't sure of that roof either!
      When we all first saw it, the general concensus was that there was still work going on....
      thinking, foolishly, that that was a huge tarp!!

      I believe that it is deliberate... to distinguish the new build from the old!!
      As if you couldn't tell!!!

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  3. I love these old historical buildings...I too hope that you get to visit the inside one of these days.....that should be interesting.

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  4. Apparently the museum got off to a "rocky" start--pun intended because (a) it is full of stone tools and (b) there were problems initially with the display. We visited the museum soon after it opened. The buildings themselves and the view were what I remember best.

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  5. The whole building could use a different color....but it is interesting.

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