Roman roads and Romaneau

There's very little written about the history of this area, and even less on the web. Sebastian at the shop/restaurant told me that the family who own the Château de Romaneau at the south end of St Dizant did some research.

St Dizant, now a few kilometres inland, was a port in Roman times (the marshes were drained in the middle ages, just as the Fens and Broads of England were). Back then, when Saintes was the capital, there was a major road from Saintes to St Dizant which went past the place where the château now stands. There was probably a Roman villa on the site. The road continued to be in use for a long time, and was later part of the Pilgrim Route (to Santiago de Compostella). Now that stretch of the road has disappeared. It's possible that one of the tunnels around here leads to the Château, but no-one has investigated that.

The Château de Romaneau isn't open to the public. Until fairly recently the Romaneau family lived in the big house, but now it's closed up and the last resident lives in a smaller house in the grounds.