Montréal Castle (Ardèche)
The Montréal Castle ( French Château de Montréal ) is located in the Ardèche department in the heart of the former province of Vivarais in the municipality of Montréal . It stands at a height of 289 meters on a rock cone and dominates the village below. The hilltop castle got its name from this position : The Latin Mons Regalis means Königsberg and in the Middle Ages denoted higher positions from which the surroundings could be dominated. From the Latin name, the French Mont Royal and from it today's Montréal developed.
The roots of the castle lie in a Romanesque defense tower from the 12th century, which was built by the Balazuc family. In the meantime, the castle belonged to another family who called themselves "von Montréal" after the complex. From 1343 the castle again belonged to the Balazucs, who then remained lords of the castle for around 300 years. They expanded the facility in several steps. Through the marriage of heirlooms, she first came to the de Hautefort family in the 17th century and to the Merle de Lagorce family in the 18th century. Partly demolished during the French Revolution , the castle was later used, among other things, for agricultural purposes before the current owner acquired it in 1998 and began a gradual restoration .
The complex is partly in ruins and has been under monument protection as Monument historique since December 28, 2000 .
history
Montréal Castle was first mentioned in documents in 1206. At that time, it consisted only of a Romanesque fortified tower built by the Balazuc family, of which there were three in Montréal. In 1210 this Balazuc tower was owned by Pierre de Vernon, a grandson of Pons de Balazuc. The following tower owners called themselves "von Montréal" and expanded the fortifications in the 13th century to include a residential building ( logis ) and a curtain wall . Together with seven other castles, it was supposed to secure the silver mines of Argentaria, today's Largentière .
Pelette de Montréal married Albert II. De Balazuc on August 9, 1343 and brought the complex to his family. The Balazucs were the most powerful family in the Lower Vivarais in the Middle Ages. She remained the owner for around three centuries and expanded the castle in the Gothic style. She also added a renaissance style lodge to the existing buildings at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries .
Marie, Jean de Balazuc's heir, brought Burg and the associated Seigneurie to her husband Gabriel de Hautefort de Lestrange in 1638. Under the couple, the north facade of the Renaissance-era residential building was changed and a small tourelle was removed, but the console was left. It is still on the facade today. Via Charlotte de Hautefort, the plant came to the Merle de Lagorce family through marriage in 1742. During her time as mistress of the castle, 58 valuable tapestries from Aubusson were brought from Montréal to Vallon-Pont-d'Arc as part of a dowry . You can see them in the town hall there today.
Charlotte and her husband sold the castle on March 22, 1775 for 60,815 livres to Nicolas de Beauvoir du Roure, Viscount of Brison, but he did not keep the complex for long and left it on December 21, 1790 by proxy - the lord of the castle was during the French revolution emigrated - for only 2,400 livres to Simon de Lapierre sell. He had the top seven meters of the keep demolished and sold the stones as building material. In the 19th century a silkworm farm was housed in the castle buildings. In the same century, the west facade was redesigned. A fire in 1875 destroyed the renaissance ceilings in the logis.
The castle later came to the Paysan family and was used for agricultural purposes and as a wine cellar, before it was sold to the current owner Hubert Fénestrier in 1998. The trained bricklayer began restoring the castle. For the first ten years he managed this on his own, since 2008 he has been supported by a helper. Today, from March to January, the facility is open to visitors for admission every day except Saturday mornings and Sundays. Seven rooms of the castle can be explored independently. In addition, events take place on the castle grounds in spring and summer, where you can learn medieval crafts such as blacksmithing, woodturning or calligraphy in courses . In addition, there are two medieval festivals lasting several days with a market and entertainment in July and August . In this way, around 15,000 visitors find their way to Montréal every year. It is also possible to rent the large room in the Logis for celebrations and events, or to spend a few days in a small holiday apartment at the castle. For the future, the lord of the castle planned to prepare a room for a permanent exhibition on the history of the castle.
description
architecture
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The castle complex consists of a square keep from the 12th century as well as a Gothic and a Renaissance lodge. To the north of the building complex is the former orchard, south of the forecourt of the complex with farm buildings from the end of the 18th century. The entire castle area is enclosed by a curtain wall, in the northern part of which the original entrance to the castle from the 13th century is still preserved. Today access is from the south via the forecourt. A 7 × 4 meter gate in the logistics complex leads to the small inner courtyard around which the residential buildings are grouped. Its passage is spanned by a low cross vault, the keystone of which shows the coat of arms of the Balazuc family. In the inner courtyard there is a cistern , which is one of three such devices in the castle, because the complex does not have a castle well . The facades of the inner courtyard are in the Renaissance style with cross-frame windows . A door with a keel arch flanked by a loopholes leads from the courtyard to a staircase with a large spiral staircase , the steps of which are two meters wide. According to an inscription, it dates from 1559 and leads to the upper floor of the logis, where the manorial living quarters used to be. On the east side of this building there are still console stones from Maschikulis , but they are no longer preserved.
The keep is built from humpback blocks and is still 25 meters high today. Its 2.5 meter thick walls rise above a square floor plan with a side length of ten meters. Its former high entrance is around five meters high. Its entrance is protected by a side gate and loopholes.
inside rooms
On the ground floor of the Renaissance Logis (also called New Logis ) there is a large hall with a vaulted ceiling. Access is provided through a door that was built into a Gothic door frame in the 19th century. The room used to be divided into three individual rooms: a sideboard that served as a curing chamber in the 19th century , the stately dining room and the castle kitchen, whose fireplace is still preserved. The dining room used to have a fireplace, but previous castle owners sold it. Today, only its withdrawal testifies to its former existence. The situation was similar with a Romanesque fireplace in the Gothic logis (also known as the old logis ). Together with some gargoyles , it was also dismantled and sold. The upper floors of the residential buildings cannot be viewed because they are inhabited by the current lord of the castle. All rooms on this floor are accessed via a gallery .
The small castle chapel has a curious floor covering. The central floor element is a former altar plate . One of the walls of the room was also the back of an oven, so that the chapel was heated with its heat at the same time.
The interior of the keep reveals it as a pure defense tower . There are no institutions to suggest that his rooms were suitable for living. Narrow gaps in the masonry are the only light sources for all floors. There is a cistern on the ground floor, which served as a storage room. The first floor served as a guard room. From there, canals in the walls led to the defense platform . It is a medieval communication system that the guards on the different floors could use to talk to each other. The 5.5 meter deep basement can now be reached via iron stairs. In times of siege it served as a storage room for food.
literature
- Albin Mazon: Montréal et ses seigneurs. In: Revue historique, archéologique, littéraire et pittoresque du Vivarais. Vol. 3, No. 12, 1895, pp. 620-629 ( digitized version ).
- Michel Riou: Ardèche, terre de châteaux. La Fontaine de Siloé, Montmélian 2002, ISBN 2-84206-214-0 , pp. 186-195.
Web links
- Castle website (French, English)
- Entry of the castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- Montréal Castle on passionchateaux.com (French)
Footnotes
- ↑ a b c d e Montréal Castle website , accessed October 12, 2015.
- ↑ a b c Entry of the castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Montréal Castle on passionchateaux.com , accessed November 12, 2015.
- ↑ a b c M. Riou: Ardèche, terre de châteaux. 2002, p. 192.
- ↑ a b A. Mazon: Montréal et ses seigneurs. 1895, p. 621.
- ^ A. Mazon: Montréal et ses seigneurs. 1895, p. 629.
- ↑ a b c M. Riou: Ardèche, terre de châteaux. 2002, p. 195.
- ↑ a b c vmfpatrimoine.org , accessed November 12, 2015.
- ↑ Information according to the entry of the castle in the Base Mérimee . The website passionchateaux.com states the current height of the keep as 28 meters.
Coordinates: 44 ° 31 ′ 44.5 " N , 4 ° 17 ′ 35.3" E