N° 8 and 9 The large motte and its ditchSee the explanatory panel on site



The large motte, now in a mutilated state, belonged to the Comte de la Marche and was probably built before 1000. It measured 55m in diameter at the base, and 13m high.

During archaeological excavations in 1865 by Pierre de Cessac, a lot of weapons – swords, chain-mail, spear-heads and spurs – were discovered.

 

The wooden tower on top of the mound, which would have measured 11m x 9m at the base, had been burned. Three locks were found there, showing that it was quite a sophisticated structure.

 

These remains, together with the large size of the motte, prove its military role in a place near the frontier of the Marche.

A local legend tells that it was built by women, digging the soil with their hands and then carrying it in their aprons.

 

N° 12 and 13 Small mottes and bailey, watchtower ​

and ‘Road of the dead’
See the explanatory panel on site



These two small mottes and the adjoining bailey were surrounded by deep ditches which are still visible (see photo). Their situation at the bottom of the valley had no defensive value. Their role was to charge tolls, like a motorway péage, monitoring the road that passed at their feet. The fact that only tools were found there during the 1865 archaeological dig confirms this.

The right to impose a toll, recorded in the owners’ terriers (lists of properties, tenants and dues), survived until the Revolution. Funeral processions, trying to avoid paying it by passing through the fields, were sometimes attacked. The unofficial route, designed to evade the toll, is still called the Route des morts (“Road of the Dead”).