Château de Savigny-le-Vieux

The surviving compound is dominated by the medieval keep, which is the only original structure still standing. This square keep measures roughly nine metres on each side and rises to about seventeen metres in height, not counting the roof. The masonry consists of large ashlar blocks combined with local stone, and the external wall thickness is about 1.30 metres. The tower once sat atop a crenellated defensive platform, a feature that the upper parts no longer present.

Today the keep is capped by a slate pavilion roof whose timber frame dates to the 16th century and is built from chestnut. The internal arrangement spans three levels and together offers approximately 200 to 250 square metres of floor area. A principal living room is presently the main accessible space and contains rustic furnishings owned by Éric Mayer-Schaller. The keep includes a fireplace that began as an open hearth and was modified in the 18th century.

Fortifications around the keep evolved over time. Originally the tower was protected by a wooden palisade and reached by a ladder. Later a stone enceinte replaced the wooden defences and was encircled by moats; the moats were filled in by the 18th century. That fortified ensemble once included a gateway and a drawbridge, and it disappeared by around the end of the 19th century. The 16th-century pavilion added by Gabriel de Grigny survives only as buttresses, the superstructure having collapsed in 1980.

Alterations to the keep’s openings illustrate changes in use and comfort: narrow arrow slits were later enlarged and fitted with windows, and some of those windows contain stained glass. The principal room’s roof structure was altered in the 16th century, and surviving corbels do not align with the main bearing beams, showing evidence of that rebuilding. The tower rests above a projecting cellar that forms a terrace, and a small stream that once crossed the estate has been routed into a forced conduit under recent stewardship.