Château

English translation

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History

The château of Maillebois, situated 30 kilometres to the north-west. The outbuilding structures, the work of Nicolas Desmarets, superintendent of finances under Louis XIV, date from the end of the 17th century. They were restored by the Vicomte de Maleyssie in the early 19th century. It was Lionel-Henri Latham, grandfather of the current owner, who had the stables built in 1882, at the rear of the outbuildings. Highly characteristic of the end of the 19th century, they are organized around a courtyard half-sunken into the hillside. Note the unity of the materials used: flint, bricks of different colours, granite and marbles. The passage and the rooms are covered with barrel vaults and vaultings adorned with glazed brick motifs. The walls are constructed with flint nodules with coloured mortar joints, all the framings, bands and cornices are in bricks, the openings have basket-handle arch lintels. The mangers and drinking troughs are in marble. Two bronzes by Rainot ornament the external drinking troughs. An exedra forms the foot bath for the horses. The equestrian furniture remains in place. The decoration is regularly punctuated with the interlaced initials LHL which stand for Lionel-Henri Latham. What is remarkable is the homogeneity of the ensemble: absolutely all the rooms are executed in the same way, but without any monotony whatsoever, thanks to the richness of the combined play of polychromy and geometry. These stables are still in use.