Association de Sauvegarde du

CHATEAU DE GAVRAY

THE AREA OF THE DWELLING

Summary

1 – Presentation of the eastern zone
2 – Excavations

This page

3 - The AB building
  3.1 Exposed Structures
  3.2 The excavations

Building AB

4 – Building C
  4.1 Exposed Structures
  4.2 The Search
5 – Buildings prior to C
6 – The north-east corner of the enclosure
7 – The stair tower
8 – Latrine
9 – Between the stair tower and the latrine
10 – Between the latrine and the perimeter wall

Appendix:
Excerpt from the conclusion of the 1989 excavation report

Other buildings

1 - Presentation of the eastern zone–

– After the first work of clearing and reconnoitring the eastern area, there was a group of buildings of quite large size. This is the only area of the enclosure, along with the keep, to show such important traces of construction. But these buildings appear to be of a different nature from the large round tower, the massive square keep, at the top of the hill, which reveal the military and defensive aspect of the castle.

Here, at the back of the platform (the best protected place on the site), the walls are thinner, the apparatus apparently neater. During the excavations of previous years, a quantity of red ceramic paving tiles had been collected from the outer path, at the foot of the walls of these buildings. These few clues made it possible to imagine more residential buildings.

Little is known about the residential nature of the castle, but it is certain that Charles II of Navarre, his family and friends stayed there on many occasions. A text from 1321 lists the buildings whose gutters have just been redone:

2 – Excavations

This summary plan of the last state of occupancy is as follows:

- A and B, the basement of a large rectangular building separated in two by a middle wall. It is accessed by a staircase;

- C, at a higher level in the north. It is reached to the west by a step and to the east by a schist threshold leading to a staircase;

- D, a stair tower;

- E, the base of a small square tower, probably used as a latrine;

- F, a courtyard bounded by the perimeter wall and the exterior walls of the other buildings.

The materials used are almost exclusively local, from the stone commonly known as "purple pudding".

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