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This unusual obscurity, partly explained by the castle's history, very nearly proved fatal.
Its story begins in the sixteenth century. Antoine de Crussol, Duke of Uzès, and his wife Louise de Clermont, Countess of Tonnerre, decided to build a hunting lodge near Cruzy-le-Châtel, in the Tonnerrois region (now part of the Yonne department), on a deserted plateau surrounded by forests renowned for their abundance of game. Construction took about six years, from 1566 to 1572. In a collection dating from 1576 entitled Les plus excellents bâtiments de France (The Finest Buildings of France), Maulnes Castle is described as part of an ambitious architectural complex, with semicircular outbuildings connected to the castle by a gallery and a bridge, and a large walled garden. It is not known whether this project was ever completed, but some thirty years ago, little more than the castle's five walls remained.
Built around a spring
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