Association de Sauvegarde du

CHATEAU DE GAVRAY

BARNYARD

1 – The barnyard

Access to the castle is via the lower part of the enclosure: the barnyard. It represents barely a tenth of the total area of the fortress. It is, after the barbican, after the entrance tower, a third defensive element that protects the upper platform where the keep and most of the important buildings are located.

2 – The silo

The only construction visible today in this barnyard is a circular silo with a well-preserved pink interior plaster. It has been totally filled in and has not been searched. This is a very important element in a fortress, where you need to be able to sustain a siege and feed dozens, if not hundreds, of men:

... CXIIII quarters and a half of froument, XV quarters of beans, XII quarters and a half of pitch, XVI quarters of barley, XXVIII quarters and a half of oats, XXI C fliche of bacon, half a pippe of verjuice of grain, LIX l. of sain, item XLII l. of healthy, XVIII pos of old bure of VII years melted into an awl for better keeping...... a barrel of Gascoigne wine, III barrels of Spanish wine, I barrel of Poitou wine, a box of guernaiche, XIX pippes of Paiz wine, II pippes of Anjou wine, XXXV barrels of cider...

Two extracts from the accounts of the King of Navarre, giving an idea of the foodstuffs kept in the castle, the so-called  "garrison"

3 – Access to the platform

The route of the current path is misleading: the waste pickers sought to have the lowest possible slope. It is necessary to imagine a wall separating the two courtyards, a sloping side perhaps made of wood allowing access to the upper part of the enclosure.

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