La Hunaudaye Castle
The ruins of La Hunaudaye Castle ( French Château de la Hunaudaye ) are located in the French commune of Plédéliac in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany . It can be viewed from the beginning of April to the beginning of November for a fee.
The castle was built in the 13th century by followers of the Duke of Brittany to secure the border. After being destroyed in 1341 during the War of the Breton Succession , Pierre Tournemine began to rebuild at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century. During the Renaissance , the residential building of the castle ( Logis ) was adapted to the higher demands on living comfort before the complex was looted and defended during the French Revolution .
Since 18 February 1922, the ruin as is Monument historique under monument protection . On November 27, 1930, the entire castle area was included in the list of classified monuments .
history
Olivier (de) Tournemine, with the permission of Duke Pierre Mauclerc, built the first castle complex on the current site in 1220. It was supposed to secure the eastern border of County Penthièvre against County Dinan . Only a few remains of this first complex are left today, as it was attacked by English soldiers and troops of Jean de Montfort during the War of the Breton Succession in 1341 and almost completely destroyed. Pierre (de) Tournemine began a reconstruction at the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century, in which the remains of two existing towers were supplemented by three new defensive towers and connected to a curtain wall with new curtains . On the inside of three of the walls there were residential and farm buildings.
In contrast to many other castles and palaces , La Hunaudaye was spared the fighting and the associated damage during the French wars of religion because the opposing parties recognized the castle's neutrality and did not attack it.
At the beginning of the 17th century the then owner Sébastien de Rosmadec was a part of the still visible Logis ' in the Renaissance style building. The ruins of a staircase that connected the different floors of the building are evidence of this. This construction work was the last to be carried out on the facility, after which it was increasingly neglected. In 1631 it came to the Rieux family and in 1783 to the La Moussaye-Carcouët family, who sold it to the Counts of Talhouët a year later.
Looted during the French Revolution and stripped of its defensive elements, the owner had the formerly damaged castle set on fire in 1793 to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Chouans . After that it was used as a quarry in the 19th century, which is why much of the building fabric that still existed at that time disappeared for good. Due to the poor condition of the remains, the northern curtain wall and the northwest tower collapsed in 1922. The state bought the dilapidated facility in 1930 and began restoring it in 1932 . Further security measures followed during the 20th century. The last restoration work took place between 2005 and 2008, before the castle ruins became the property of the Conseil géneral des Départements Côtes-d'Armor in February 2008 .
description
The castle ruins stand on an island that is surrounded by a wide moat . A drawbridge still allows access today . The castle has an irregular, pentagonal floor plan, the corners of which are marked by round towers with up to four storeys. The west and south-east corner towers are from the 13th century, while the other three are more recent and were built at the end of the 14th century or the beginning of the 15th century. The towers are connected by curtains and thus form a polygonal curtain wall . None of the towers served as a donjon , although some of them have walls almost four meters thick. Their upper floors are accessed by stairs in the wall thickness.
On the west side of the complex is the ruin of a residential building ( Logis ), which leans against the inner wall and has a vaulted cellar in the basement . You can still see the remains of an 18-meter-long ballroom with a large fireplace and the remains of a staircase from the Renaissance period. Its entrance door is decorated with elaborate sculptures, such as the relief of a column with an Ionic capital . There are also parts of the former kitchen, including a sink and the kitchen fireplace, as well as an oven.
All the building fabric consists of granite , with both rubble and stone used as the material.
In the past, based on reliefs with religious motifs in the southeast tower, it was assumed that there was a castle chapel there. It is now believed that the tower served more as a dungeon and that some monks made the reliefs there during their captivity.
literature
- Henri Coüasnon: Château de la Hunaudaye . In: Congrès archéologique de France. CVIIe session, Saint-Brieuc 1949 . Société française d'archéologie, Paris 1950.
- Joseph Darsel: Vieux manoirs et gentilshommes du Penthièvre. De Henri IV to Louis XVI . Selbstverlag, [Lanvollon] 1988, pp. 18-31, 44.
- Henri-Paul Eydoux: Châteaux fantastiques . Volume 3. Flammarion, Paris 1971, pp. 95-106.
- Reinhard Friedrich (Red.): Castle trip to Brittany (with the island of Jersey) . German Castle Association, Braubach / Rhein 2005, pp. 34–35.
- Henri Frotier de la Messelière: Le pays de Lamballe. De Saint-Brieuc à Saint-Cast et de Plancoët à Moncontour . GP impr., Plouagat 1991, pp. 168-176.
- Frédéric Renier et al .: La Hunaudaye ou la féodalité au coeur de l'Arguenon . Imprimerie de Châtelaudren, undated
Web links
- Website of the castle ruins (French)
- La Hunaudaye castle ruins in the monument portal of the Brittany region (French)
- Contribution to the castle ruins of the TV channel France 3 (French)
- Photos from Base Mémoire
- Video about the castle complex
Footnotes
- ↑ Entry of the castle area in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French), accessed on November 2, 2011.
- ↑ The Base Mérimée indicates the period from 1405 to 1410.
- ↑ a b Entry of the castle ruins in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French), accessed on November 2, 2011.
Coordinates: 48 ° 28 '22.1 " N , 2 ° 20' 20.4" W.