Château de Clavières

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Ministère de la Culture, in French. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Ministère de la Culture; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

History

A first castle of Clavières was probably built in the 13th century, the seigneury appearing in texts in 1230, as belonging to the house of Albars. A fortified house with staircase tower was built or rebuilt probably at the end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century. The property passes by alliance to the Salvatge (or Salvage de Clavières) family in the 16th century and remains there to this day. In the middle of the 17th century, the castle is enlarged by a wing attached to the north, and a chapel is built nearby, to the east. Farm buildings are constructed to the west in the 18th century and a formal garden is laid out. In the middle of the 19th century, the castle is transformed: it is enlarged towards the south and, at the centre of the remodelled and unified façade, a rotunda is built as a projection, probably inspired by that of the prefecture of Aurillac.

Description

The castle has a rectangular plan with very regular arrangements, covered with a roof of lauzes slates with two slopes and hips, pierced with hipped dormers. The façades are very symmetrically and regularly ordered, in regular bays of two square storeys. The frames of the large openings in dark lava stone stand out against the façades with light render. The main west façade presents four bays on either side of a tower-rotunda topped with a conical roof. The three doors on the ground floor of this projection are covered with round arch and framed with rusticated quoins. The north and south façades present three bays; the southern one has a door whose lintel is engraved with the date 1857. The rear east façade has seven bays of which the central one, corresponding to the staircase well, is occupied by a through-opening. Inside, the vestibule is located in the rotunda and follows the semi-circular shape. In the axis, opens the entrance door surrounded by two glazed glazed doors with diamond panes. The floor is covered with white and black cement tiles. The hall leads in the axis to the wooden staircase well with a first straight flight then two converging turning flights. The ironwork guard-rail with scrolls bears the monogram of the Salvages de Clavières (SC). The well is covered with a cloister-vault arch pierced with lunettes. The dining room is a large room with paint-finish wainscoting on the walls and a floor covered with white tiles with black cabochons. All the furniture, made by journeymen, forming a matching set, was designed for the room. A chapel is built on a compact plan with two levels and covered with a hipped roof. Stables, garages, dovecote-henhouse-woodshed, arranged in parallel rows, adopt homogeneous arrangements. The gardens were rearranged as a landscape park in the 19th century.