Tour Mélusine

The Tour Mélusine is the keep of a former castle in the commune of Vouvant in the département of Vendée in France.

[1] This keep and watchtower, built at the end of the 12th century or the beginning of the 13th century[2] (very often dated 1242,[3] even if this is probably wrong because of architectural techniques and features[4]), is the only vestige of the ancient castle of the Lords of Lusignan built in the present location of the "Place du Bail".

Like all of the Lusignan's castles, legend holds that it was built in a single night by the fairy Melusine "de trois dornées de pierres et d'une goulée d'Ève" ("from three apronfuls of stones and a mouthful of water").

[3] This tower, 45 m high from the ditch and with its cylindrical shape, is original from that time.

The tower has been protected as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture since 1927.