Ensigné is a commune

Communes of France

The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 in the Deux-Sèvres

Deux-Sèvres

Deux-Sèvres is a French département. Deux-Sèvres literally means "two Sèvres": the Sèvre Nantaise and the Sèvre Niortaise are two rivers which have their sources in the department.-History:...

 department in the Poitou-Charentes

Poitou-Charentes

Poitou-Charentes is an administrative region in central western France comprising four departments: Charente, Charente-Maritime, Deux-Sèvres and Vienne. The regional capital is Poitiers.-Politics:The regional council is composed of 56 members...

 region

Régions of France

France is divided into 27 administrative regions , 22 of which are in Metropolitan France, and five of which are overseas. Corsica is a territorial collectivity , but is considered a region in mainstream usage, and is even shown as such on the INSEE website...

 in western France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

Geography

The surrounding countryside is densely wooded. The village is close to the forest of Ensigné and of Aulnay.

The kindergarten and primary school have been merged with those of Asnières-en-Poitou

Asnières-en-Poitou

Asnières-en-Poitou is a commune in the Deux-Sèvres department in the Poitou-Charentes region in western France.-References:*...

 and Paizay-le-Chapt

Paizay-le-Chapt

Paizay-le-Chapt is a commune in the Deux-Sèvres department in western France.-References:*...

, none of the three individual villages having a population above 300 by the start of the twenty-first century.

History

The history of the village is closely linked to that of the Knights Templar

Knights Templar

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...

. Ensigné contains a Templar command post comprising fortifications, a chapel and a castle. Today the site is privately owned: the castle itself is in a ruined condition, but two separate properties have been created from the part including the former chapel.