Welcome to the website of
“Château de Coussay”
1 allée du cardinal
86110 COUSSAY
05 49 50 43 48
thibault001@orange.fr

Coussay Castle is a “prioral” castle built by Bishop Denis Briçonnet who was prior of Coussay and bishop of Saint Malo, Toulon and Lodève. Indeed, around 1520, returning from an embassy in Italy for several years to Pope Leon Xth, “seduced by the beauty of the place, he decided to build his home there”.
This is how this castle was born, a mixture, by its plan, of a protective and closed past, and of a nascent style open to the countryside, inspired by the innovative beauty of the Italian Renaissance. It is one of the monuments of the first French Renaissance.
A little less than a century later, it was inhabited by Armand-Jean Duplessis, then Bishop of Luçon, before he became the famous Cardinal of Richelieu in 1622.
The exterior of the castle is freely visible all year by walking around the moat on the private path.

Free of charge guided tours in the castle garden are organized by the Tourist Office of Haut Poitou : the last visit, in which 39 people participated, was on August 10.

On Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 September, during the European Heritage Days 2025,
520 people were able to follow free guided tours in the garden and on the ground floor of the castle.

From Saturday, September 6 to Sunday, September 22, 2025, the fifth "biennale d'art de Coussay" was open every day, and visitors to the European Heritage Days were also able to enjoy it.

photo Elise Paget