Château de Rozay

English translation

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History

Situated on the left bank of the Cher, this small pleasure residence presents the traditional layout of a medieval castle with a lower court, courtyard and round towers at the angles of a quadrangular platform, surrounded by moats. Enclosed within its curtain wall which is pierced only by the entrance gateway to the south, the castle consists of a main dwelling set in the north-east angle of the courtyard, and a wing of outbuildings, which was attached to the west curtain wall in the 17th century or very early in the following century. The dwelling, of regular plan, comprises a principal block raised between a small courtyard and a compartmented garden, flanked to the east by a large pavilion and a return wing. This wing contains the spiral stair tower, a small two-storey gallery, open to the courtyard, and the chapel. The dwelling, whose harmonious composition appears homogeneous, presents a very simple, symmetrical arrangement, where ornament is limited to mouldings of the framings of openings. The interior elevation of the chapel is Gothic. Italian influence appears only in the presence of the gallery and in the discreet adoption of the new ornamental repertoire on the fireplace of a room on the principal floor and the corbels of the chapel. The absence of archival sources and the modifications made in the 17th and 18th centuries make it difficult to date this pleasure residence, whose defensive function appears weak. It was probably constructed in the late 15th century or early 16th century, for the Sardé, a family of minor nobility whose members held offices in Bourges. The distribution and interior arrangement of the principal dwelling block date from the second half of the 18th century. The rooms on the upper floor have retained their panelling decorated with painted canvases on the overmantel of the fireplaces and above the doors. Of the 16th-century decoration only a monumental fireplace with Ionic columns, Corinthian pilasters and a cornice decorated with varied motifs employed after 1540-1550 survives. Rozay has the merit of having retained its old arrangements, characteristic of the small rural castles of Berry in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, and a certain authenticity, despite the contributions made by the scholar Emile de Toulgoët-Tréanna in the second half of the 19th century.