Rue Venose

Here stood the castle built in 1424, residence of the Chauvigny family, lords of La Châtre. Only the 20-meter-high keep remains, whose 2-meter-thick walls are pierced with loopholes. From 1734, the tower was used as a prison. In 1937, the prison was abolished and the building was bought by Jean Despruneaux. He turned it into a private museum gathering the memories of George Sand's friends and of the novelist herself. In 1939, it housed the ornithological collection of the municipal museum and became in 1954, on the occasion of the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the birth of George Sand, the "George Sand and the Black Valley Museum" that Mr. Despruneaux bequeathed to the city of La Châtre in 1966.