Château du Chambon

English translation

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History

Located in the valley of the Haut-Allier, surrounded by a well-maintained park, the château du Chambon appears as an important stronghouse of the 15th century humanized over the centuries and furnished in the 19th century with a decoration of carefully executed woodwork. The château du Chambon was built in the 15th century by the family of Blau known from 1160 for their possessions in the region of Brioude. It was indeed in 1409 that Guillaume de Blau, lord of Gibertès, Auvers and Cronce, purchased the lordship of Chambon and abandoned his castle of La Roche-Blau in favour of this place of Chambon, with a less harsh climate. The family dying out in the 17th century with Françoise de Gibertès, the castle was sold to a bourgeois of Langeac, Jean Véal. His descendants still possessed it at the Revolution. Jean Balthazar Véal de Blau, brilliant officer of the army of Condé proved hostile to the new regime, and had to emigrate. His property was placed under sequestration but he returned to France under the Restoration and became mayor of Langeac. Deceased without posterity, he ceded his property to Messieurs de Lastic and de Chazelles. The castle subsequently changed hands several times. It seems that, perhaps following a collapse, during the first half of the 19th century, a terrace was constructed in rubble stone in place of a buttress on the south-west angle and before the south façade. It also seems that at the end of the 19th century, other works were undertaken: on the north façade, an opening was pierced at the level of the first floor in order to arrange a direct passage onto the park; this opening, executed in neo-Gothic style, opened into the void and was connected to the garden by a drawbridge; various interior arrangements were carried out, notably the installation of vast fireplaces, in the drawing room and the dining room; one of them was installed before one of the Gothic openings of the east façade; no doubt at the same period or more recently, was added on the south façade, before the terrace of the first floor, a small building serving as a garage. From 1930, the date at which it was sold to monsieur Ripert d'Alauzier, it was no longer maintained. The following owners undertook substantial works without being able to complete them. From 1946, the current owners made efforts to enlarge the park, to arrange it and to carry out in the castle the necessary works. The castle is situated at the edge of the hamlet of Chambon, two km south of Cerzat. A fairly large arranged park, crossed by an access drive and enclosed by a large wall surrounds the castle. The plan of the castle is very simple: rectangular with a large corner tower to the north-west and a half-projecting staircase turret at the centre of the south façade. The façades of the castle are of a sober and rather rustic aspect. Only the principal south façade is in ashlar stone; the others are small, in rubble stone, and have lost the render that covered them. The roof is supported, over its entire perimeter, including that of the towers, by a regular row of corbels with three steps. The south façade, is the principal façade, on the courtyard. It has been (re)opened with large regular openings on three levels. At the centre, the large staircase tower, with a sloped base, has preserved its original openings with moulded surround as well as its entrance door which is inscribed within a surround in pointed arch whose monolithic tympanum was decorated with arms - defaced since. The west façade is especially marked by the presence on its angle of the large round tower which, on the west side, is pierced only by a few slits. The north façade has fewer and more disparate openings; only the entrance door with a moulded surround in accolade distinguished itself. On this façade the entrance is made at the level of the first floor by means of a wooden footbridge formerly a drawbridge which connects the garden to this entrance door. The east façade has preserved a few ancient openings including one with a cross-bar. The interiors preserve besides a spiral stone staircase, fine wooden doors of the 16th century, in moulded surrounds, with softened angles. These doors present rectangular panels ornamented with sorts of sculpted rosettes; that of the first and third level is the most ornamented, the median part also comprising a decoration of ovoid foliage. On the ground floor, the dining room, redecorated in the 19th century, possesses a French ceiling and a monumental wooden fireplace with fluted pilasters and a lintel with superimposed straight mouldings; above the hood casing is likewise ornamented with strong geometric mouldings. On the first floor, the drawing room preserves a fireplace, of much more modest dimensions, also in wood but of 17th century style, with pilasters ornamented with consoles bearing a lion's head as capital and with a lintel very richly carved with winged sphinxes, foliage and, at the centre, with a helmeted head. Above a wooden overmantel incorporating a mirror and a landscape painting. The study, comprises, as on the ground floor, a fireplace of monumental type, in wood. The hood is ornamented with a still-life painting (bouquet in a vase).