Montbras Castle

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Montbras Castle, view from the west

The Montbras Castle ( French Château de Montbras ) is a French castle in the Lorraine municipality of Montbras . The Renaissance- style complex stands on a rocky plateau on the left bank of the Meuse . Started by Claude de Verrières at the end of the 16th century, only one and a half wings of the once four-wing complex are now left. These have been under monument protection since June 28, 1974 as a classified monument historique .

history

A previous building, 300 meters from the current castle , was first mentioned in a document at the beginning of the 14th century, when the solid house of Bras ( French fors maison de Bras , later called L'Isle-en-Bras) was the victim of a fire. Afterwards rebuilt, it came into the possession of Jean on August 24, 1353 when the brothers Pierre, Jean and Henri de Bourlémont divided it. The property later became the property of the de Vigneulles family and fell into ruin . Louis de Vigneulles and his wife Nicole de Merle sold this to Claude de Verrières on August 11, 1598. The extra money came from the 60,000  francs barrois comprehensive dowry that had brought his wife Louise de Salles into the marriage. Shortly after the purchase, the couple began building today's castle as a 57 × 60 meter four-wing complex with bastion corner towers. The architect is unknown, possibly it was one of the Italian builders at the court of Duke Charles III of Lorraine . whose chamberlain was Claude de Verrières' father. Construction work was temporarily interrupted in 1611 by Louise de Salles' death, but resumed after Claude's second marriage on November 7, 1611 with Julia della Valle. After Claude had no children when he died, his widow gave Montbras Castle to a great-niece of her late husband, Marie de Mery, on March 28, 1638, when she married Jacques de Leviston.

The couple rarely stayed in Montbras. In September 1643 it transferred its rights to the castle and the domain to Simon de Sommyèvre, another relative of Claude de Verrières. However, he did not reside on Montbras, and his son Jacques only used it occasionally. The south wing with the castle chapel burned down at a time that cannot be precisely determined . The fire ruin was then laid down. Perhaps the damage was caused by the French wars of religion in the 17th century. In 1720 only the east and west wings and part of the north wing remained. When Jacques' son Bernard de Sommyèvre († 1710) moved into the castle, it was already in need of repair, but it was not until Bernhard's son Gaspard (1677-1724) carried out the necessary repairs. The Sommyèvre family had major changes made to the complex during the 18th century: the west wing disappeared before 1754, and the large rooms on the upper floor of the east wing were divided into smaller rooms. The lords of the castle had the ceilings lowered and the beam ceiling replaced with stucco ceilings . Several of the large, tall chimneys on the upper floor were destroyed and replaced with lower marble chimneys . The French Revolution had the same consequences for the castle as it did for many French aristocratic residences : the coats of arms on the exterior facades were all removed.

Montbras Castle, mid-19th century, watercolor by the architect Châtelain

In 1837 the family sold the castle. The farmyard to the east of the main house was sold in pieces to the residents of the village that had developed from the outer bailey of the castle. The lands belonging to the castle were also acquired by the villagers of that time. The core lock came into rural hands and was used for agriculture. During this time, some of the facade decoration and interior fittings were dismantled and installed in Bourlémont Castle ( Vosges Department ). This applied, for example, to various console stones in the battlements and a chimney. The former, stately lodging served as a barn when the dilapidated building was acquired by Count Francis de Chanteau in 1876 . He started repairing and restoring the dilapidated facility. This included the reconstruction of the old ceilings on the upper floor of the living wing and the establishment of a new chapel . During the work on the ground floor, the metamorphosis paintings that are now internationally known were rediscovered under a layer of stucco. After the early death of the Count, his widow Cécile Marly continued the restoration work until her death in 1918. Her nephew Roger Bertin inherited the castle. He sold it to Raymond Raoulx and his wife in 1958. In 1986, Claude Thomas bought the property and began further restorations that continue to this day. In the main living wing that has been preserved, there are now luxurious guest rooms.

description

architecture

Site plan of the castle

Of the former four-winged Montbras Castle, only the eastern and about half of the northern wing and the four corner towers are preserved today. You stand on an almost square castle grounds, which used to be surrounded on three sides by dry trenches carved into the rock . On the fourth, eastern side, there is still a terrace supported by a ten to twelve meter high wall. To the north of the castle is the former outer bailey, which has a horseshoe shape. A mighty round tower , which used to be a dovecote , also belongs to the outer bailey . The arched entrances of the former stables have keystones in the shape of farm animals.

Although it was built as a residential palace at the time of the Renaissance , the architectural elements and forms of the feudal Middle Ages were not dispensed with in the construction. The defensive components of the exterior facades as machicolations , battlements and machicolations , however, were always only optical purposes. The building material used was white limestone from the quarry in the neighboring Taillancourt and from Savonnières-devant-Bar . In addition, stone from Chermisey was used. While the Savonnières stone was mainly used for the sculpted parts of the castle, the Chermisey stone was used in the base masonry .

The main residential wing (the Logis) was - contrary to the usual customs at the time - not the south wing, but the two-story east wing with a slate hipped roof . Its outer facade is delimited by two three-story corner towers and measures 60 meters including the towers. The corner towers used to have one storey more than they do today and were thus higher than the lodging. They are closed off by flat tent roofs , which replaced the former high helmets . The main decoration on this page are holey stones that were used, among other things, as corner blocks. The outer wall of the cantilevered battlement is decorated with cartouches showing reliefs with weapons and pieces of armor . The corridor is supported by three-tier console stones that are richly carved. In addition to plant ornaments , they show mascarons , none of which are alike. The west facade of the Logis facing the main courtyard is 30 meters long and has a rich architectural decoration. It is structured vertically by fluted pilasters . On the ground floor these are Ionic , while on the upper floor they are Corinthian . They flank large cross-frame windows , between which niches are occupied by statues . Its round arched end is filled with shell shapes and crowned by blown triangular gables. The name plaques made of black marble between the shell and the gable have now disappeared. They earlier indicated that the statues on the ground floor are sculptures of goddesses from ancient mythology , while the statues in the niches on the upper floor are religious allegories . The top floor is equipped with three reconstructed portholes , which are decorated with Doric pilasters. Friezes with tendril ornaments separate the three floors. In the middle of the ground floor there is a round arch portal with a two-winged wooden door. Above this is the coat of arms of the de Chanteau family, which replaces the coat of arms of the de Verrières family that was removed during the revolutionary years. Above it greets the carved inscription SALVE.

In the past, visitors reached the central castle from the outer bailey via a drawbridge , which led to a monumental portal building in the north wing. Only half of it has survived due to the partial demolition of the wing. The almost seven meter high portal was crowned by a triangular gable, the gable field of which showed reliefs with weapons and pieces of armor. In contrast to the courtyard side of the north wing, which was completely changed in the 18th century, its outer facade is still original. There you will also find the castle's only porthole surviving from the time of construction, which served as a model for the reconstruction of the east wing.

inside rooms

The rooms on the upper floor were all accessible via a gallery on the courtyard side . Since this storey was heavily changed in the 18th century, nothing is from the Renaissance period there, but the paneling and chimneys are baroque . The situation is different with the rooms on the ground floor. One of the rooms has a barrel vault , the painting of which dates from the beginning of the 17th century and depicts motifs from the illustrated edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses published by Jean de Tournes in 1557 . The fields of the vault are separated from one another by wide bands. Medallions with the coats of arms of Claude de Verrières and his wife Louise de Salles as well as their monograms (CC and ʎʎ) sit at their intersection . The room called Claudes Kabinett ( French cabinet de Claude ) also has a barrel vault, the 24 fields of which are carved and painted in color. The four central fields show the monograms CC, ʎʎ, DCV and AV, the last two of which have not yet been deciphered. Rosette reliefs sit at the intersection of the border bands . In the lunette there are two wall paintings from the time the castle was built. One of them shows three noble couples between large vases of flowers, while the opposite shows the dance of the Tupinambá . The latter recalls that in 1613 six members of this Brazilian people were brought to France to be instructed in the Catholic religion . In the neighboring former sacristy there are paintings made of glue paint on the walls. Angel heads are depicted in the lunettes. They alternate with laurel wreaths surrounding the monograms AM (Ave Maria) and IHS (Iesus Hominum Salvator). The walls are decorated with the arms of the Sommyèvre family.

  • External facade of the logis

  • Statue niche on the courtyard facade of the logis

  • Barrel-vaulted room with depictions from Ovid's Metamorphoses

  • Vaulted ceiling in Claude's cabinet

literature

  • Uwe Annhäuser: Lorraine. Between the Vosges and Champagne, on the Meuse and the Moselle. DuMont, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-7701-4426-0 , p. 144.
  • Jean-Pierre Babelon: Châteaux de France au siècle de la Renaissance . Flammarion, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-08-012062-X , pp. 708-709 .
  • René Bertin: Le château de Montbras (Meuse). In: Société d'archéologie lorraine (ed.): Le Pays lorrain (Nancy). Vol. 24, New Series, Volume 1, 1932, ISSN  0031-3394 , pp. 385-402 ( digitized version ).
  • Francis de Chanteau: Notice historique et archéologique sur le château de Montbras (Meuse). In: Société d'archéologie lorraine (ed.): Mémoires de la Société d'archéologie lorraine. 3rd episode, Volume 6, 1878, ISSN  1770-6122 , pp. 269-298 ( digitized version ).
  • Claude Frégnac: Merveilles des châteaux d'Alsace, de Lorraine, de Champagne, des provinces de Liège, de Limbourg et de Luxembourg. Hachette, Paris 1974, pp. 50-53.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ First entry of the castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French), accessed on September 7, 2015.
  2. ↑ J.-P. Babelon: Châteaux de France au siècle de la Renaissance. 1989, p. 708.
  3. ↑ a b R. Bertin: Le château de Montbras (Meuse). 1932, p. 387.
  4. ^ R. Bertin: Le château de Montbras (Meuse). 1932, p. 386.
  5. ↑ F. de Chanteau: Notice historique et archéologique sur le château de Montbras (Meuse). 1878, p. 278.
  6. ↑ F. de Chanteau: Notice historique et archéologique sur le château de Montbras (Meuse). 1878, p. 279.
  7. ↑ a b c d C. Frégnac: Merveilles des châteaux d'Alsace, de Lorraine, de Champagne, des provinces de Liège, de Limbourg et de Luxembourg. 1974, p. 51.
  8. ↑ a b c d e f History of the complex on the castle website , accessed on September 7, 2015.
  9. ↑ a b R. Bertin: Le château de Montbras (Meuse). 1932, p. 391.
  10. ↑ a b c R. Bertin: Le château de Montbras (Meuse). 1932, p. 388.
  11. ↑ F. de Chanteau: Notice historique et archéologique sur le château de Montbras (Meuse). 1878, p. 284.
  12. ↑ a b Second entry of the castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French), accessed on September 7, 2015.
  13. ^ R. Bertin: Le château de Montbras (Meuse). 1932, p. 396.
  14. ^ R. Bertin: Le château de Montbras (Meuse). 1932, p. 389.
  15. ^ R. Bertin: Le château de Montbras (Meuse). 1932, p. 390.
  16. ↑ F. de Chanteau: Notice historique et archéologique sur le château de Montbras (Meuse). 1878, p. 283.
  17. ↑ F. de Chanteau: Notice historique et archéologique sur le château de Montbras (Meuse). 1878, pp. 286-287.
  18. ↑ F. de Chanteau: Notice historique et archéologique sur le château de Montbras (Meuse). 1878, p. 287.
  19. ^ R. Bertin: Le château de Montbras (Meuse). 1932, p. 393.
  20. ^ R. Bertin: Le château de Montbras (Meuse). 1932, p. 395.
  21. ^ R. Bertin: Le château de Montbras (Meuse). 1932, p. 399.

Coordinates: 48 ° 31 ′ 39.4 "  N , 5 ° 41 ′ 41.3"  E