Chassy Castle

Chassy Castle stands in Le Château, the commune of Clessy, France.

The site began with an early fortified house dated 1056, which provided the base for later development. From the earliest times until the fifteenth century the fief passed through a series of local families, recorded under names such as Les Du Bois, Les Chassy, Les Jantes and Les Choul or Choux. In the twelfth century Alix de Busseul entered a convent after her husband was murdered. In 1315 Hugues de Jantes performed homage to the count of Charolais for his house called Chaci.

A documentary reference to a castle at the place appears from 1404, and much of the castle’s present appearance dates to the fifteenth century when the main dwelling was substantially fashioned. Around 1500 Claude Choux, husband of Jeanne Brichard, commissioned a seigneurial chapel at the estate.

Ownership changed in the sixteenth century when, in 1540, Françoise Choux brought the domain as a dowry to Jean de Bernault. The property then passed to the La Guiche family and later to the Beaudoin de Digoin family; Sylvain-Raphaël de Baudoin sold the estate to Hugues de Mayneaud de Bisefranc. In the mid-eighteenth century the domain was resold to Count Antoine Augustin Jean-Louis Duprat-Barbançon, identified as a grandson of Jean Hector de Fay, marquis de la Tour Maubourg, who had established the Forges of Gueugnon in 1724.

In the twentieth century the castle received legal protection as a historic monument, first being placed on the supplementary inventory in March 1927. On 4 October 2012 protection was extended to include the main dwelling, the outbuildings, the site enclosure and the ground on which the castle stands. A decree issued 17 November 2022 classified the castle complex of Chassy. Today the property is privately owned by Lieutenant-Colonel Bernard de Benoist de Gentissart.