Château d'Aphat

About

The Aphat Castle or Apat Castle is a castle located in Bussunarits-Sarrasquette in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.

The noble house of Apat is cited in 1309 (maestre pes dapate), in 1311 in the list of lights of the Kingdom of Navarre (palacio de Apate) and in 1366 (el palacio dapaate). In 1413 the seigneury of Apat joined the family of Ahaxe and in the 16th century with a branch of the Saint-Esteben family. In the 16th century, there was a lord of Apat and Saint-Esteben, the king's man and gentleman of the chamber, lieutenant of King Francis I at the Château-Neuf de Bayonne. His son was shunned by King Henry II. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the castle entered into possession of the Lostal de Saint-Palais. By marriage, in 1664, he returned to the Etchepare de Sarrasquette. In the 19th century Jules Apat, without heirs, gave the castle to his sister's eldest son, a Van den Zande from which the present owners descended. In the fourteenth century there is probably a strong house, among many others at that time in the region. The oldest elements of the present castle date from the 15th century, with the typical round towers of this time. Some...