Ancien château du Tertre

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

"In the middle of the 18th century, Dom Calmet observed that "the king (Stanislas) is sole lord of the part which is of the county of Ligny and M. du Tertre is lord of the other part, which has the title of barony and formerly of provosty, of the bailiwick of Bar (...). The king and M. du Tertre each have a château there". Counsellor and attorney general at the Chamber of Accounts of Bar, François Vyart became counsellor of state and attorney general at Bar. It was in these capacities that, on 26 and 27 December 1721, duke Léopold erected Tronville in Barony in his favour. Among his children, Thérèse married around 1720 Charles du Tertre, counsellor to the Parliament of Metz (1693-1747). It was certainly at the initiative of Charles du Tertre, then aged 39 that was raised, in 1732 (date borne on the pediment) the present château. Thérèse Vyart survived him for many years, since she died in 1782. From their son Antoine-Louis, deceased in 1789, the château passed to Jean-Baptiste-Nicolas-Louis du Tertre, who emigrated in 1790 to die at Port-au-Prince in 1796. Sold as National Property in 1795, the château was repurchased on 20 February 1859 by the commune which made it a presbytery, then a tax office, until the town hall finally moved in, on 2 November 1983. Preceded by a courtyard long bordered by a monumental entrance of which a pavilion remains, the château is a rectangular body of a single storey, covered with a high roof of slate with hipped ends. Its main façade, to the north-east, is built of ashlar pierced by four tall windows with segmental arch lintel, framing a central avant-corps with triangular pediment of three round-arch bays, preceded by a staircase with two lateral flights. The Tuscan order of the pilasters, supporting a bombé entablature, the keystones in mascarons with female heads of the bays and the date "1732" in small spaced numerals embellish this noble façade. The other façades, in rubble stone rendered, are more soberly treated. To the north-west, on the courtyard, a body of outbuildings of two storeys of rectangular windows extends the main dwelling. As regards the interiors, three rooms have retained their character, representing two-thirds of the ground floor area: - the central vestibule, with its black and white patterned paving, its wainscoting and its ceiling decorated with nine painted panels, work of painter Louis Yard. - the adjacent wainscoted salon, with its fireplace and its large painted panel, work of the same artist. - the dining-room, wainscoted with rectangular panels, with its fireplace of the early 19th century. The ten canvases, as well as an armorial earthenware fountain were classified as objects on 28 March 1980."