The town perhaps takes its name from Scauriacum, domain of the Gallo-Roman Scaurius. Located between the Gâtinais bocage and the Niortais plain, it is sculpted by the valley and the 18 kilometers of meanders of the Sèvre Niortaise regulated by 8 roadways and had 45 estates and 7 mills in 1716. Installed in 1894 in a former flour mill, the Échiré Cooperative Dairy is today the market leader in quality butter. With a nutty taste, its Charentes-Poitou butter with AOC label has been served at the Elysée since René Coty (1956), at Buckingham Palace and in the Principality of Monaco and the Poitevin chef Joël Robuchon used it in his famous mash. The company received in 2003 the prize for the best French exporter awarded by the London Chamber of Commerce.
What to see in Echiré?
01. The Coudray-Salbart fortress
Impressive 13th century fortified castle attributed to the legendary Fairy Melusine, at the heart of the struggles between France and England, it prohibited the crossing of the Sèvre Niortaise, southern border of the lords of Parthenay-Larchevêque. A barbican followed by a farmyard and a winch drawbridge leads to the castle which still has six different intact towers (Portal, Bois-Berthier, Double, Saint-Michel, Moulin and Grosse Tour): round or beak; vaulted in a broken barrel, with ribbed ribs or in a dome pierced with an oculus; monumental fireplaces; vast archer niches; latrines. They are connected by a corridor (a shaft) lit by rare loopholes. Coudray-Salbart is the subject of significant restoration work and is open part of the year. For a summer weekend, the fortress is also in the spotlight during its medieval festivals in July and August.
02. The Mursay manor house
Ce pleasure castle, today protected ruin garden, was the stronghold of Agrippa d'Aubigné in the 16th century, grandfather of the Marquise de Maintenon, great poet of the Baroque period and squire of the future Henry IV who spent the happiest days of his life there in 1576. Moreover, theAllée du Roy, an avenue of lime trees three hundred years old, bears this name in memory of his stay. Now you are invited to follow in the footsteps of historical figures haunting Mursay!
03. The Château de La Taillée (private)
The castle was built in a single layer of cut stone at the beginning of the 17th century in the Henry IV-Louis XIII style View Josué du Fay de la Taillée, who married Préjente de Magné on April 27, 1629. Their son Louis married on December 9, 1683 with Elisabeth Martel de Vandré, the niece of Eléonore Desmier d'Olbreuse who would be nicknamed the grandmother of Europe. In fact, his daughter, Sophie-Dorothée married George Louis of Brunswick-Lüneburg, future king of England under the name of George I. Georges-Guillaume du Fay, by marriage contract signed on February 1, 19 at the Château de la Durbelière, married Françoise du Vergier de la Rochejacquelein. Through her mother, born Elisabeth de Caumont d'Adde, she is the great-granddaughter of the warrior and poet Agrippa d'Aubigné. During the Revolution, the family emigrated. The castle, put up for sale as national property, did not find a buyer allowing its legitimate owners to recover it on their return from exile and to passed down from generation to generation to their direct descendants who still own it today.
04. Le Château-Gaillard (private)
THEold feudal manor, held in 1678 by the squire Jacques de Liniers, East transformed into a home at the end of the 19th century by Monsieur Fouquet de Massogne ; the 1720 dovecote having been preserved.
The outbuildings of the castle contained the vintage car collection of the transport entrepreneur Roger Baillon who died in Brûlain in 1996. The wreck of a Talbot T26 Grand Sport Total or partial Ferrari 250 GT spider California, formerly owned byAlain Delon ; three coach Delahaye, post-war models type 235 developed in the workshops of the Levallois coachbuilder, Henri Chapron were auctioned in 2015, during the Rétromobile show in Paris.
05. The Notre-Dame church
In the 15th century, the building is rebuilt and enlarged. Its original apse is replaced by a straight apse and its 1866th century nave is covered with ribbed vaults. It was renovated in 1870 and rebuilt after XNUMX. Only the octagonal dome on squinches of the transept square, the pillars with Romanesque capitals et a southern window splayed in tiers. The church was consecrated in 1879 by thebishop of Poitiers accompanied by sixty priests. Then, the monument was restored from 2011 to 2012.
06. The Wolf Castle
In one green stands the castle of the wolves who knew preserve your anonymity far from all eyes. This magnificent estate with the castle as a backdrop, the 19th century residence of Renaissance style overlooking the Sèvre Niortaise, opens its doors to organize your exceptional events in a fairy frame, just 10 minutes from Niort.
Other curiosities to see:
- The Ternanteuil home from the XNUMXth century
- The Peu Manor of the 20th century
- The Braye fountain 1875
- The Moulin Neuf wash house
- The cooperative dairy and its shop “The Workshop of Excellence”
- LThe chain boat “Le Mursay” inaugurated in 2019 and connecting the Château de Mursay to the village of Sciecq
