Château

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

The château belonged to several notable figures including Jean and Louis Mallet de Graville, close to kings Charles VII and Louis XII, as well as Henriette d'Entraigues, mistress of king Henri IV. From the initial château, built in the 14th-15th centuries, there remain three towers equipped with their hourds between which two perpendicular wings are arranged. Until the beginning of the 19th century, four wings punctuated by four towers closed a central courtyard according to the same arrangements as the original fortress. The main body, constructed from 1720 to 1724, is the work of Pierre de Vigny. Certain interior decorations are due to Robert de Cotte, first architect to the king. The return wing was subjected to heightening and treatment of the façades in the style of the main body, to harmonise the ensemble and obey the classical rigour of the early 18th century. The outbuildings rise around what was formerly the lower courtyard, communicating with the château by a drawbridge framed by two small towers. They consist of granaries or grain barn, built at the end of the Middle Ages and reworked in the 16th century (porch) and 18th century (bulb of the staircase tower); of the gatehouse or receiver's house which also sheltered the captain of the guard, whose façade onto the park was reworked in 1722; of the castle chapel built at the end of the 15th century to which a larger vessel was added at the beginning of the 17th century; of the dovecote reworked at the beginning of the 18th century; of the ice-house, mentioned in 1723; of the house called the Châteaubriand house, constructed in 1776, which is said to have lodged the writer. The park of the château is one of the finest arboretums dating from the end of the 18th century in this region. In this park, Malesherbes gathered a collection of indigenous and exotic trees whose acclimatisation he experimented with.