Esneval Castle

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Esneval Castle, view from the southeast

The Esneval Castle ( French Château dʼEsneval ) is a castle complex in the French town of Pavilly in Normandy . It goes back to a system that Robert de Dreux had built as the successor to a castle that was badly damaged in the Hundred Years War . The castle did not get its current appearance until the 18th century under Pierre-Robert Le Roux. It has been a classified Monument historique ( French Monument historique classé ) since March 2, 1970 under monument protection . The facility is privately owned and used as a residence, so it cannot be visited. The castle chapel is open to visitors every year on the day of the open monument .

history

Medieval predecessor system

In the Middle Ages , two families ruled over the area of ​​what is now Pavilly: on the one hand, an old-established family who named themselves after the place "de Pavilly", and on the other hand the dʼEsneval family. The latter only appeared from the 10th century after the French King Charles III. in the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, the areas of today's Haute-Normandie and the Pays d'Auge had ceded to the Normans Rollo . These two families had been in competition since that time, which only ended in 1280 when Robert dʼEsneval married Marguerite de Pavilly, the last of their family. The Esneval built a small castle including a chapel in the 13th century and, with the permission of King Charles V, were allowed to fortify it more strongly during the Hundred Years War . However, the measure could not prevent the facility from being captured by English troops during the war. The lord of the castle was staying in Bourges in the entourage of the French king when the English occupied his seigneury and installed a follower of Henry IV of England there .

New building in the 15th century

Only after the reconquest of Normandy by Charles VII in 1449 did the rightful owner get his property back. At that time, however, it was no longer the Esneval family, but Robert de Dreux, because in 1404 the heiress Jeanne dʼEsneval married Robert's father Gauvain II. De Dreux and thus brought the seigneurie to his family. However, the Esneval castle was so badly damaged during the war that it was no longer habitable, and so Robert de Dreux had a successor built between 1469 and 1478. This consisted of a multi-storey rectangular building with hexagonal towers at the corners. The chapel from the 13th century was the only part of the old castle that was preserved when it was rebuilt.

Baroque changes

Representation of the castle by Louis Boudan , 1702

In the 16th century, the house's only daughter, Anne de Dreux dʼEsneval, brought the facility to her husband René de Prunelé. His family died out in the male line in the 17th century. Françoise de Prunelé married Anne de Tournebu, President of the Parliament in Rouen , in 1615 and bequeathed the castle to her only daughter, Madeleine. Through her marriage to Claude Le Roux de Tilly in 1644, his family came into possession of the complex and the seigneurie. The Le Roux called themselves Le Roux dʼEsneval (also spelled Leroux dʼEsneval). The property passed from Claude Le Roux through his son Robert to Claude's grandson Anne-Robert. He left the facility to his eldest son Pierre-Robert Le Roux when he died in 1766. The new Seigneur had large-scale changes made to the old complex by 1770 and converted it into a more homely castle. The open gallery on the ground floor of the main building, which was enlarged to the north and south by two side wings, disappeared . Pierre-Robert had the old chapel, damaged in the French Wars of Religion , completely demolished and replaced by a new building. The foundation stone was laid on March 7, 1769, and the inauguration by the Archbishop of Rouen , Dominique de La Rochefoucauld , on June 26 of the following year. Like its predecessor, the church was consecrated to Thomas Becket .

19th century and later

Esneval Castle 1893

Pierre-Roberts great-granddaughter Juliette Antoinette Le Roux married Adrien Bézuel in 1825 and brought the castle with them into their marriage. Andrien Bézuel had the hexagonal towers at risk of collapse repaired and the facade of the palace and the palace gardens changed. He also received permission for himself and his descendants to add the addition dʼEsneval to his surname. The couple's granddaughter, Jeanne Bézuel dʼEsneval, was married to Alfred dʼAuray de Saint-Pos and brought the system to his family. After the death of his parents, the eldest son Henri took over the inheritance and bequeathed it to his eldest daughter Marie-Thérèse from his marriage to Jeanne Boulay de La Meurthe when he died. Together with her husband Raoul de Broglie-Revel, Marie-Thérèse had some outbuildings of the palace complex converted into apartments in the 20th century.

description

The main gate of the castle

The castle stands on a hill on the bank of the river Sainte-Austreberthe, which was formerly called Esne and from which the castle got its name. It is a 35.82  hectare large landscaped surrounding landscaped park as site classé under conservation stands. Access to the chateau complex provides a two-bladed iron gate, on the gate pillar gripping statues sit. They hold shields with the coats of arms of the Esneval and Pavilly families. An octagonal pigeon tower from the 15th century stands on the edge of the castle park . However, it does not belong to the historical castle buildings, but comes from an estate in the municipality of Mesnil-Panneville . The town of Pavilly acquired the building and had it moved from there to the palace gardens in 1986 .

The main castle of the complex consists of a rectangular central building with a high, slate-covered gable roof and two side wings with hipped roofs that connect to the north and south. The masonry is made of light colored stone . The core of the central building, including the towers surrounding it, dates from the 15th century, but was changed several times in later centuries. The hexagonal towers have tall slate helmets with weather vanes and have lost their corner function since the side wings were added in the 18th century. One of them functions as a stair tower with a stone spiral staircase inside. The vault of the stairs shows the coats of arms of Jeanne dʼEsneval and her husband Robert de Dreux, the builder of the middle wing.

The castle chapel

The brick chapel with a five-eighth closing is dedicated to the former Archbishop of Canterbury , Thomas Becket. Like the main castle, the building has a slate roof, which is crowned by a ridge turret with a bell and a baroque hood . The southern front side with the entrance portal is clad with light stone and has a triangular gable as the upper end . Its gable field shows a sculpted eye of providence surrounded by angel heads and clouds. It was restored in 1999 . The interior of the chapel is illuminated by high arched windows . The wall surfaces underneath are clad with wood paneling , which - like the majority of today's furnishings - dates to the 18th century. The tomb of Thomas de Pavilly with his reclining figure, on the other hand, dates from the 13th century ; it was already in the previous chapel . The canteen of the altar is supported by two angel statues. In between there is a small shrine with a relic of Thomas Becket. A large painting above the tabernacle , which shows the murder of the saint , also commemorates him .

literature

  • A. Chéruel: Château dʼEsneval, près de Pavilly. In: Revue de Rouen et de Normandie. Volume 13. Periaux, Rouen 1845, pp. 19-27 ( digitized version ).
  • Sophie-Dorothée Delesalle, Christian Olles, Muriel Vandeventer (eds.): Le Patrimoine des Communes de la Seine-Maritime. Volume 2. Flohic, Paris 1997, ISBN 2-84234-017-5 , pp. 1070-1071.
  • Julien Loth: Le château dʼEsneval, à Pavilly. In: Jules Adeline et al .: La Normandie monumentale et pittoresque, Seine-Inferieure. Lemale & Cie., Havre 1893, pp. 215-218 ( digitized ).
  • Philippe Seydoux: Châteaux du Pays de Caux et du Pays de Bray. 2nd Edition. Éditions de la Morande, Paris 1987, ISBN 2-902091-17-6 , pp. 104-105.

Web links

Commons : Esneval Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry of the castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French), accessed on October 14, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c Sophie-Dorothée Delesalle, Christian Olles, Muriel Vandeventer (eds.): Le Patrimoine des Communes de la Seine-Maritime. Volume 2, 1997, p. 1071.
  3. ↑ A. Chéruel: Château d'Esneval, près de Pavilly. 1845, p. 23.
  4. ^ Julien Loth: Le château dʼEsneval, à Pvailly. 1893, p. 215.
  5. ↑ A. Chéruel: Château d'Esneval, près de Pavilly. 1845, p. 24.
  6. ↑ Video about the castle, showing excerpts from a publication on the history of the castle , accessed on October 22, 2019.
  7. ↑ a b c Julien Loth: Le château dʼEsneval, à Pvailly. 1893, p. 217.
  8. ↑ Video about the castle, showing excerpts from a publication on the history of the castle , accessed on October 22, 2019.
  9. ↑ A. Chéruel: Château d'Esneval, près de Pavilly. 1845, p. 25.
  10. ↑ Information about the castle on the City of Pavilly's website , accessed October 22, 2019.
  11. ^ A b Philippe Seydoux: Châteaux du Pays de Caux et du Pays de Bray. 1987, p. 104.
  12. ↑ a b Information sheet from the French Ministry of the Environment about the protection status of the castle area (PDF; 38 kB)
  13. ^ Sophie-Dorothée Delesalle, Christian Olles, Muriel Vandeventer (eds.): Le Patrimoine des Communes de la Seine-Maritime. Volume 2, 1997, p. 1070.
  14. ↑ Video about the castle, showing excerpts from a publication on the history of the castle , accessed on October 22, 2019.

Coordinates: 49 ° 34 ′ 17.5 ″  N , 0 ° 57 ′ 12.8 ″  E