• Architectural heritage
  • The church Sainte-Madeleine

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    Church built in Romanesque style, it is the former chapel of the Episcopal castle of Touvre. It overlooks the site of the springs of Touvre. In its current state, it has a unique nave of three spans prolonged by a narrower choir. A square bell tower, of classical design, was added in the angle to the north of the facade. This building, classified as an historic monument today, underwent numerous devastations during the wars of the Middle Ages. It was restored in the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries.

    Remains of the feudal castle

    The castle was built by 1049 by Guillaume 1st Taillefer, bishop of Angoulême, to defend himself in a struggle against his brother the count Coots. Today, there are only the outlines of the construction left.

    Roy Mill

    Now part of the private Bellet fish farm, it was formerly a wheat mill. Originally, this mill belonged to François I – he came fishing here.

    Lussac Mill

    This is now the site of the private Ravenel fish farm, but was once the flour mill of Pontil.

    The Lodging house of the Fawning

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    This privately-owned lodging house is partially classified as "Historic Monument". It is situated in the oldest hamlet of the municipality there where is a spring which gives birth to a brook. This in turn flows into Echelle brook.

    Washhouses

    Several washhouses survive in Touvre. The washhouse of the Fawning was built in 1933 on the site of a former washhouse dating from the middle of the XVIIth century.
    It is in this place that the Fawning spring emerges from the ground.. Another washhouse is situated in the Pontil locality and dates from 1925. Other washhouses were built after the 1930s, on the Echelle brook and are in the villages of Gauchons and Varennes.

    Emblem -The DEVAL family

    A very ancient family of Angoulême in 1705 owned he domain of Lesche. Guillaume DEVAL, president of the Election of Angoumois, became Lord de Touvre when he bought the castle and gave himself a coat of arms

    "In three silverfish fasce in right hand and added by a crescent of silver going up, with valances of foliage, the whole surmounted by the count’s crown."

    In the 1980s, the municipality of Touvre wanted to adopt this emblem. It was agreed with the Ministry of Culture and Communication to delete the valances of foliage and to replace the count’s crown with a crown with three towers.