Grimaud Castle
| Grimaud Castle | |
|---|---|
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| Creation time : | First mentioned in the 11th century |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle |
| Conservation status: | ruin |
| Place: | Grimaud |
| Geographical location | 43 ° 16 '29.6 " N , 6 ° 31' 15.9" E |
The Grimaud Castle ( French Château de Grimaud ) is the ruin of a medieval hilltop castle in France . It rises on a hill overlooking the town of Grimaud in the Var department .
The castle , already mentioned in the 11th century, was the seat of the Seigneur von Freinet , who was a feudal man of the Count of Provence . In the Middle Ages and early modern times , the castle was lent to various noble families who changed and expanded it. Defeated in the Huguenot Wars, it was defeated in the 17th and 18th centuries. Century transformed into a castle-like complex. After it was confiscated during the French Revolution and then used as a quarry, the castle gradually fell into ruin. Today their remains are secured and are open to visitors free of charge all year round.
history
The location of the castle was already settled in ancient times. As early as the 11th century, the castle and town were mentioned in writing as castri nomine Grimaldi et Grimaldo castello . There are different statements about the builder of the system. Some publications give the knight Gibelin de Grimaldi, possibly from a branch line of today's Monegasque princely house , as the builder, while other historians see the builder in a local lord named Grimaldus. Since that time the castle has been the center of a property that was a Provencal fief.
Around 1246 the castle came to the Pontevès family, for whom it was raised to a barony . Troubled times at the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th century made it necessary to strengthen the fortification and the surrounding village. Today's ring wall was built accordingly , for which some of the villagers' dwellings had to give way. Via the Adorne family, who owned the castle in the 14th century, it came to the Cossa family in the 15th century, because in 1441 René I of Anjou enfeoffed his Grand Seneschal Jean de Cossa with the complex. He had changes made to her. For example, the first floor of a defensive tower was converted into a cistern with a capacity of 85 cubic meters. In 1485, the French King Charles VIII awarded the castle and village to his chamberlain Étienne de Vesc, whose family remained the owners until the 16th century. However, they rarely used the facility.
After 1555 the castle and barony came to the Agoult family. Through the marriage of Jeanne dʼAgoult-Montauban to Claude François de La Baume, Count of Montrevel, the property passed to his family in 1602. Their daughter Marie married Esprit Allard, a favorite of King Louis XIII in 1627 . For him Grimaud was made marquisate . After the death of her husband, Marie sold the property to François de Castellane in 1645. His family saw their castle razed during the Huguenot Wars in 1565 on the orders of Cardinal Richelieu . The Castellanes remained owners until the 18th century. They enlarged, modernized and redesigned the complex to make it more comfortable, giving it the character of a castle. For example, they had the two round towers built on the south side. In the meantime, all of the village dwellings within the castle wall had been abandoned, and the settlement had moved to its current location.
During the French Revolution, its owner, Jean-Baptiste de Castellane, fled to Nice. Grimaud Castle was confiscated as a national property around 1791 and then used as a quarry. Since then it has been in ruins, which has been consolidated and secured since the 1990s. In 1996 it was as a monument historique under monument protection provided. So that it can be used for cultural purposes, its owner, the Count of Senard, made it available to the community. Numerous public events have taken place there since 2001, including the Festival des Grimaldines concerts every summer .
description
Grimaud Castle was a fort-type castle with a square floor plan and four mighty towers at the corners. These were connected by curtains and thus surrounded an inner courtyard. From the inside, buildings leaned against the curtains, which thus also served as outer walls for residential and farm buildings. Preserved cross-frame windows from the Renaissance period bear witness to this. Its borders are made of green serpentine and, like the cornices of the corner towers, date from the 15th century. Some ( restored ) loopholes testify to the fortification of the complex. A drawbridge probably used to lead to its main entrance on the south side .
The ruins used to be surrounded by three tiered circular walls, two of which are still preserved. The outer one has a height of up to seven meters. Behind their battlements one of runs consoles worn battlements . In the southeastern part of the area enclosed by the wall there is an area that is used for cultural events and is modeled on an amphitheater .
At night the facility is illuminated with floodlights.
literature
- Antoinette Demuth: Le Château de Grimaud - Lou Castellas. Grimaud Tourist Office, Grimaud 1993.
- Office de Tourisme de Grimaud (ed.): À la découverte du patrimoine. Grimaud, le chateau. Grimaud 2007, no p.
- Serge Panarotto: Châteaux de Provence. Édisud, Aix-en-Provence 2003, ISBN 2-7449-0353-1 , p. 114.
Web links
- Description of the original building stock and further information
- Aerial video of the castle ruins: Video 1 , Video 2
Footnotes
- ^ A b Serge Panarotto: Châteaux de Provence. 2003, p. 114.
- ↑ a b c Office de Tourisme de Grimaud (ed.): À la découverte du patrimoine. Grimaud, le chateau. 2007, no p.
- ↑ See Château de Grimaud , accessed on September 6, 2017.
- ↑ a b c Description of the original building stock and information on the history , accessed on September 7, 2017.
- ↑ Information according to the entry of the castle in the Base Mérimée . According to other information, the ruin has been a listed building since 1928, and in 1996 the large curtain wall was added to the French list of monuments. See Office de Tourisme de Grimaud (ed.): À la découverte du patrimoine. Grimaud, le chateau. 2007, no p.
- ↑ Entry no. PA00081632 in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French), accessed on September 18, 2016.
- ↑ Information on the castle of Golfe de Saint-Tropez Tourisme , accessed on September 7, 2017.