The 15th-century fortress of Château de Blancafort

The château de Blancafort sits in the heart of the village of Blancafort, in the region of Berry, in the Pays-Fort. It was built and completed at the start of the 16th century for François de Boucard and his wife Marguerite de Cugnac. The first mention of a seigneur de Blancafort appears in 1064, with a certain Garnier. Godefroy, husband of Bilichilde, made donations to the Templiers of the commanderie du Fresne.

Godefroy was the father of Godefroy, Seguin, and Giraud. Giraud, who was the husband of Villaine, increased the paternal donations to the Fresne in 1199 and was the father of Seguin and Jean who succeeded him. Jean I, husband of Hélissende, continued the family's generosity in favor of the Fresne in 1201; he was the father of Geoffroi, Joscelin, Pierre, and Renaud who succeeded him and was himself the father of Jean II de Blancafort. Jean II founded the chapel of Saint-Sylvain in the church of Blancafort in 1250 with his wife Jeanne de Pregrimault; they were the parents of Pierre and Agnès, who succeeded her father.

Agnès married first Guillaume d'Autry and second Jean de Boucard. François de Boucard and Marguerite de Cugnac had a daughter, Jeanne de Boucard, who married François de Sainte-Feyre, and a son, Pierre de Boucard, who succeeded his father and had a daughter, Françoise de Boucard. Françoise was first the wife of Louis d'Estampes de La Ferté-Imbault et Salbris and later of Jacques de Courseulles, baron de Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre. From 1568 to 1594, Blancafort was in the possession of the baron de Saint-Rémy, chamberlain to the duc d'Alençon. He had only one son, Honoré de Courseulles, who died in 1593. The château was then inherited by his cousins Hélie and Amable de Sainte-Feyre.

Claude (II) de Faucon was from a Florentine family that settled in France. He was a maître d'hôtel to Marie de Médicis and a treasurer of France in Moulins. He married Marguerite Courtin de La Grange-Rouge, and their daughter, Françoise (de) Faucon, dame de Blancafort, died in 1660. She was the wife of Charles d'Angennes de Poigny. Their son Joseph d'Angennes became baron of Blancafort and sire of Concressault. From 1781 to 1919, the château belonged to the Duranti family, some of whose members were mayors of the village. A copy of a Sainte-Famille by Mignard, created by Charlotte de Duranti in 1834, is kept in the church of Blancafort.

From 1919 to 1963, the château had several owners. The château was inscribed as a historical monument by a decree in 1926. In October 2017, the château was put up for auction for a sum of 1.7 million euros, while it was estimated at 4.95 million euros. The sale did not take place.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons