Castello di Montfleury

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Castello di Montfleury

The Castello di Montfleury is a little summer palace on the outskirts of Aosta , which is mistakenly called "castle" or "chateau" only out of tradition.

This country house has an eventful history: It was probably built as a cult site of a farm that belonged to a convent, but after some renovations it was converted into a summer castle and for decades glamorous and glamorous events took place there, including those of Xavier de Maistre ; eventually, after passing through a few hands, it was converted into religious property. Today it is again in private hands and not open to the public. It belongs to the regional agricultural school, the Institut Agricole Régional, and is surrounded by experimental fields of this institution; since 2004 the Comitato regional per le communicationi (CORECOM) of the Aosta Valley has been housed there.

location

Detail of the map of the French land registry office from 1804

The country house was named after the district of Aosta of the same name, part of the largest region of Saint-Martin-de-Corléans and is officially mentioned as such in the Catasto Sardo of Aosta in 1768, but also appears in older documents: It is a Montfleury documented in the Carta delle Franchigie of 1191 as part of the medieval settlement of Saint-Genis . The building is located on the western outskirts between the cultivated fields and the fertile meadows of the alluvial plain of the Dora Baltea , but is slightly elevated compared to this, so that it is on a beautiful, grassy hill called Tertre de Mont fleuri , which, according to Monseigneur Duc , was taken over by Abbé Henry , made up of debris from the Gressan flood in the 11th century. According to the historian Jean-Baptiste de Tillier , the area of Saint-Martin-de-Corléans , and thus also Montfleury, is devoid of any real castles and permanent houses and has therefore never been considered particularly valuable, except because of its fertility Floors.

history

There is no precise information about the construction of the Castello di Montfleury. Because of the gaps in the documents from the corresponding period, many hypotheses about its function arose, which often contain dating inaccuracies that are not easy to unravel and refute.

Entrance facade: Note the changes from the 1950s, including the inserted stone tablet with the list of owners

To prove this, a stone tablet lists:

"VILLA DE MONTFLEURY
CETTE VILLA A ÉTÉ construite
PAR CLAUDE MICHEL Barillier
VERS 1780. LES Barillier
EN LA CONSERVÈRENT propriété
JUSQ'EN 1833 OU ELLE FUT ACHETÉE
PAR LE DR. Medecin EMMANUEL BICH
ET RESTS EN POSSESSION DE SA
FAMILLE JUSQ'EN 1887th A CETTE
DATE LA FAMILLE PERROD PIERRE
ALEXIS PERCEPTEUR EN DEVINT
PROPRIÉTAIRE JUSQ'EN 1950 OÙ
ELLE FUT ACQUISE PAR LA MAISON
DU GRAND SAINT BERNARD. ”

( Eng . : Country house of Mont Fleury. This country house was built by Claude Michel Barillier around 1780. The The Barilliers kept the property until 1833, when it was bought by Emmanuel Bich, MD and remained in his family's possession until 1887. At that time, the Perrod Pierre Alexis family became the preceptor until 1950 when it was bought by the House of Great Saint Bernard has been.)

These dates, although carved at the entrance of the country house, are not always reliable: recent studies, such as that of the architect of the Turin Polytechnic, Chiara Devoti , during the last restoration, lead to an interpretive, stylistic and historical hypothesis that occasionally contradicts to classic sources of historiography and the architecture of the Aosta Valley.

The origins: the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century

Between the 17th and 18th centuries, small parcels of vegetable gardens, vineyards or fields in the region around Montfleury often changed hands due to the merging of farms and properties. A farm was probably built on this site during this uncertain period, but the sources of the time often confuse the area of ​​Montfleury with that of neighboring Champferré , which makes it difficult to locate the properties and farms mentioned in these documents exactly on the Tertre de Mont fleuri . For Lin Colliard , the former Montfleury is also called “Cartaz”.

Cadastral map from 1890
The country house was and still is in an agricultural area. Photo from 2012.
Painting by an unknown artist from the end of the 18th century showing the Castello di Montfleury. The renovations initiated by the owner Brillier can already be seen.

In the 17th century, according to some sources, the area belonged to the noble Vallaise family , who in 1696 gave ownership of the land identified as Montfleury (but not the building now known as the "Castle") to someone else and later, at an unknown date , passed on to the Convention of Sisters of the Order of the Visitation of Mary or to her without intermediaries. Official documents in support of this hypothesis are still lacking (although architectural research is confirmed), but there are some testimonies, among which the records of Canon Dominique Noussan (1847-1933) stand out:

"(...) [the Castello di Montfleury] belongs to the [Order of the] Visitation of Mary, just like the house of Signayes (...)"

This is confirmed by Monseigneur Duc :

“Not far from the village of Saint-Martin-de-Corléans, an octagonal building rises on a dam in the middle of fertile grassland, which is striking because of its special shape. It's Montfleuri. It once belonged to the Order of the Visitation of Mary and was one of their farms. "

According to this hypothesis, the Order eventually gave the property to the Barillian nobles .

According to other sources, a certain André-Joseph Millet bought the property from the Vallaises , but his son, the lawyer Grat-Joseph Millet , sold it on to the Provosty of Great Saint Bernard in 1731 . In 1754 Pope Benedict XIV's “Splitting Bull ” assigned the estates of the Aosta Valley to the Knightly Order of St. Mauritius and Lazarus , with which he de facto expropriated the Provosty of the Great Saint Bernard. In 1745 the same Grat-Joseph Millet sold the agricultural proceeds (the "additional value") of this site to the canon Pierre-François Bizel ; a sale separate from the property was not uncommon back then.

What the sources agree on is that on July 9, 1746 , the Barilliers bought a farm near the Montfleury estate from the Perrone di San Martinos for the same bizel : according to Sandra Barbieri , this may have been the property of the Castello di Montfleury, while Chiara Devoto rules out that this could already be the purchase of Montfleury and the country house by the Barilliers . For Bruno Orlandoni , this date represents a “post quem” appointment, if not a reliable certification without complete documentation.

The second half of the 18th century

Some sources, such as Lin Colliard and Bruno Orlandoni , date the construction of the country house immediately after this act of purchase by the Barilliers and thus date it to the end of the 18th century. The Barilliers left in the second half of the 18th century, the only example of a residential building in rococo style in Aosta, Maison Barillier in Via Croce di Citta build. The dating of the building of the Maison Barillier is uncertain, but its clarification would also allow the dating of the Montfleury country house to be clarified.

Engraving in wood by an unknown artist around the middle of the 19th century

If one follows this hypothesis, which excludes the year 1746 for the purchase of the plot on which the country house was built, Chiara Devoti assumes that the Barilliers also bought the farm in the following years, which then turned into a country house in the Montfleury area: in fact, the Aosta cadastre already confirms the existence of a “château” in Montfleury and, in the Champferré area, of a “mas” (English: collection of rural houses) - perhaps the farm mentioned in the 1746 document - and attributes the ownership of the parcel in Montfleury to Claude-Michel Barillier , some of which were bought for Devoto (presumably by the Order of the Visitation of Mary, even if the files are missing) between 1746 and 1748:

"In 1768 the" barn estate of Montfleury "was composed as follows:" three houses and a castle, courtyard and square, garden, meadow, field, swamp and vineyard ", a total of 10877" toises ""

What is certain is that the building was constructed in the second half of the 18th century. The architectural scholars of the Aosta Valley are also pretty much in agreement on the fact that this beauty could have arisen over an already existing building; for some, the influence of the existing structure on the particular architectural decisions of the country house would be conceivable; for others, the evidence for a new building would be too thin.

According to recent and confirmed hypotheses, as stated, the building was primarily part of a farm belonging to the convent of the Sisters of the Order of the Visitation of Mary (also called Visitandine ), who, according to the Aosta cadastre of 1768, also owned other properties in an area adjoining that of the Barilliers , presumably the chapel of the same farm. The Visitandines gave the country house to the noble Barillier family : It passed into the hands of Emmanuel Bich's father-in-law, the merchant Claude-Michel Barillier from the Aosta Valley, (perhaps 1760 or between 1746 and 1768) who wanted to refine the structure converting it into a summer residence for his trips outside the city, appreciating the picturesque location on the way to France and the ample space for a grand ballroom.

The suburban villa became known in the 18th century as the setting for the gallant gatherings of Xavier de Maistre and Marie-Delphine Petey , the widow of Jean-Joseph Barillier and owner of the beautiful country house, by the writer in his novel Voyage autour de ma chambre of 1794 and other works portrayed under the pseudonym "Elisa".

19th century

Painting by an unknown artist by Baron Emmanuel Bich (1800-1866), who married Josephine-Aspasie Bich Barillier (1807-1864) from the Barillier family on December 10, 1827 and was the final heir of the De Tillier family from the Aosta Valley

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Baron Emmanuel Bich (1800–1866) bought the Castello di Montfleury, according to André Zanotto this was in 1833. Between the 1870s and 1880s (1877, 1880 or 1887, according to various sources), ownership changed of the noble family Perrod from the Aosta Valley.

For a certain time - the exact dates are not known - according to tradition, the Masonic Lodge of Aosta was also housed in the Castello di Montfleury , as Lin Colliard reports.

From the 20th century until today

In 1913 the country house belonged to Henry Perrod . The Perrods kept the Castello di Montfleury until 1950. From then on it was owned by the Hospitaller Order of the Great Saint Bernard, who bought it to set up the agricultural school there.

Map of the restorations, demolitions and new buildings by the Hospitaller Order of the Great Saint Bernhard 1053–1954.

The canons (of the Order) carried out a restoration of the building over the course of a few years, demolishing some of the residential buildings that were attached to it, creating more functional structures a short distance away that are still in use today.

In 1982 the École pratique d'agriculture flowed into the Institut Agricole Régional . Various structures were added to this, such as the country house and farmhouse of Montfleury and the agricultural land adjacent to the Castello di Montfleury. In addition to the regional agricultural school, the Castello di Montfleury is also known for having housed the Enoteca Regionale there for a long time .

On September 7, 1986, a mass was celebrated on the esplanade of Montfleury in front of the country house by Pope John Paul II during his pastoral visit on the occasion of the feast of Saint Grato .

In 2003 the Castello di Montfleury was reopened after a comprehensive restoration that started in 2000 and since 2004 it has been the seat of CORECOM of the Aosta Valley.

description

The Castello di Montfleury has an octagonal floor plan and a massive structure, refined by arches; In addition to the ground floor, it has two more floors, to which an octagonal tower is connected in the middle, which increases the structure by a further, fictitious, third floor, actually a kind of “ lantern , which is twice the height of the salon in the middle creates ". As we have already seen, the extraordinary appearance of the beautiful country house gave rise to two main theses.

The first thesis is that the choice of architecture was dictated by Barillier , who was aiming for a small country house, but some inconsistencies remain. We don't know the name of the architect Claude Barillier hired to create this beauty of summer residence. There is also something extraordinary about its belonging to the buildings, which are called the pleasure palace, as it is seldom or at least sporadically and often described in a culture, in a time and in a space that cannot be found in the Aosta Valley, with the exception of the country house Bal di Arensod in Sarre , which, with its octagonal shape, is presumably based on the architectural style of Montfleury; As Orlandoni says, the Castello di Montfleury has few parallels in the history of residential architecture and one could rather find some with the "formal typology that was common throughout the 18th century among monasteries and garden architecture."

The little staircase that Canon Loye had built in the 1950s
Detail of a shield of the Order of the Great Saint Bernard on the entrance facade

The second thesis states that the building was derived from the contraintes of a particular building that still existed at that point and that would have prompted the architect to make some adjustment decisions that were necessary to preserve the existing building. In the last decade there has been a tendency to agree with the latter thesis and regard the building in question as the cult building of the Visitandine farm . The remark of Canon Dominique Noussan is instructive :

"The chapel of the Visitandine sisters is located in the tower in the middle: the ceiling has been painted, the rooms around it were painted by Di Barillier, the owner of Montfleury, after them, and this as early as 1774 (...)"

Joseph-Auguste Duc, on the other hand, thinks:

"In the barn you can still see traces of the cells that were probably intended for the" rotating nuns "."

Monseigneur Duc confirms that Barillier's major redesign carried out in 1913 was the last on this building.

Contrary to the hypothesis of a completely new building by Barillier as a pleasure palace, there are contemporary examples of cult buildings with an octagonal floor plan in the Aosta Valley: First and foremost, the chapel of the Saint-Pierre priory , which was restored between 1599 and 1701 and "finished with a top made of stone slabs" . In addition, this would explain the existence of a small bell tower on the roof, as evidenced by many pictorial representations and consistent with the secular aims of the Barilliers . As in the case of the Saint-Pierre priory, a sundial has appeared on the facade since the earliest paintings, probably an element that was still present as a stylistic continuation at the time of the convent's farm. Similar to the chapel of the Saint-Pierre Pirorate , the corners of the octagon are also highlighted with artificial stone blocks: During the restoration, the original wall color indicated that the Castello di Montfleury originally had engraved corner stones and that there were traces of a bright red layer of plaster in the corners found, which created a color contrast to the yellow of the facades, even if one assumes that the original plaster of the "Vistiandine" had calmer colors.

The building seems to have gone through two important construction phases: The major renovations in the 18th century on behalf of Barillier would have been preceded by an octagonal construction that had already begun. These two different construction phases were confirmed by the examinations on the walls during the restoration work in the 2000s: the lower parts of the building already form octagonal sections, but were made of poor material: stones of various sizes, river pebbles and freshly roughened stones. In contrast, the second storey, which was built by the Barilliers , and the turret are made of bricks and are made with greater care.

On the west and east facades there are two balconies with railings; in particular the one on the west side in rococo style shows the initials of Claude-Michel Barillier ("CMB") as found on the Maison Barillier , while the balcony on the east side has an appearance that dates from the later 18th century. A supposed, continuous balcony on the second floor, under the small bell tower, which replaced the two previous balconies, is said to date from the Barillier era : there were still remains of stone supports that can no longer be seen today, and French windows (today walled up ) that went out onto the balcony.

Outside, the double access staircase to the building, according to the stylistic analysis of the decorative elements carried out by Devoti , dates from the 20th century and thus from the era of the Perrods , more precisely from the period between 1953 and 1957, before the restoration, at the request of the canon Loyalty . As you can see in some of the paintings, there was a straight staircase before.

inside rooms

Even if the names of the artists, the Castello di Mont Fleury or Maison Barillier does not know decorated, we know that in these years of "Maître Entrepreneur s Sculpture" Alberto Bertolli worked in Aosta, who has the reliefs in classical style for created the Episcopal Palace of Aosta; Above all, Bertolli was called by Barillier to carry out an architectural and structural assessment of the Castello di Montfleury for the inventory of the family fortune from 1793–1794, so he could have dealt with the decorative elements himself, but there is no evidence to support one to support such a thesis.

The “Visitandinen” chapel in the middle is the one that became the middle salon of the castle, but the turret was added later. To reach this place, one went up a large stone staircase inside, which was presumably where the present staircase is.

On the first level, both in the time of the chapel and in the Barillian era, there was a kind of cloister with a vestibule, the outer arches of which were supported by Tuscan- inspired columns, while the inner ring was also pillared and open to the inner octagon. The wide, columned and unheatable cloister suggests that the chapel was mainly used in summer. Today both the inner and outer ring are walled up.

Individual references and comments

  1. ↑ The medieval settlement of Saint-Genis is described in the source “Colliard” on p. 22, quoted in the source “Devoti” on p. 10.
  2. ↑ Lin Colliard: Vecchia Aosta . Musumeci, Quart 1986. p. 22.
  3. ^ A b Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. p. 10.
  4. ^ Joseph-Marie Henry: Histoire populaire religieuse et civile de la Vallée d'Aoste . Aosta 1929. p. 117,
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g Joseph-Auguste Duc: Histoire de l'Eglise d'Aoste . Volume VIII. Oeuvre de Saint-Augustin, Aosta-Saint-Maurice 1901–1915. P. 372. Remark 1 in
  6. ↑ Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. p. 15.
  7. ↑ So the assumption that the Tertre could be a barrow or an old deposit is invalid.
  8. ↑ Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. p. 45.
  9. ^ Jean-Baptiste de Tillier: Historique de la Vallée d'Aoste . L. Mensio. Pp. 207-208. (1737) 1887. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  10. ^ A b Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. p. 7.
  11. ^ A b c Bruno Orlandoni: Architettura in Valle d'Aosta . Volume 3 (on the reform of the 20th century). Priuli & Verlucca, Ivrea 1996. p. 188.
  12. ^ A b Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. p. 16.
  13. ↑ a b c d Lin Colliard: Vecchia Aosta . Musumeci, Quart 1986. p. 219.
  14. ↑ a b c d e f Il castello di Montfleury . Comitato Regionale per le Comunicazioni Valle d'Aosta (CORECOM). Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  15. ↑ a b c d e Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. p. 27.
  16. ↑ a b c Canonico Dominique Noussan cited in
  17. ↑ Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. pp. 18, 26, 27.
  18. ↑ a b c Sandra Barberi: Imprenditori metallurgici e nuova edilizia urbana in Valle d'Aosta nel XVIII secolo: il caso dei Barillier in Bulletin de l'Académie St. Anselme . No. VIII (new series). 2003. pp. 47-48.
  19. ↑ It was not until 1950 that the Order of the Great Saint Bernard became the owner of the Castello di Montfleury, “the first urban pole of the order”.
  20. ↑ Sandra Barberi: Imprenditori metallurgici e nuova edilizia urbana in Valle d'Aosta nel XVIII secolo: il caso dei Barillier in Bulletin de l'Académie St. Anselme . No. VIII (new series). 2003, p. 48.
  21. ↑ Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. pp. 17-19.
  22. ↑ a b Sandra Barberi: Imprenditori metallurgici e nuova edilizia urbana in Valle d'Aosta nel XVIII secolo: il caso dei Barillier in Bulletin de l'Académie St. Anselme . No. VIII (new series). 2003, p. 47.
  23. ↑ a b c Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. p. 21.
  24. ^ Archivi Storici Regionali di Aosta, Fonds Ville ,. Catasto Sardo . 1768. St. Martin . f.9, n.66. quoted in
  25. ↑ see Zanotto, Orlandoni and Barbieri
  26. ↑ a b c d e André Zanotto: Castelli valdostani . Musumeci, Quart (1980) 2002. ISBN 88-7032-049-9 . P.56.
  27. ↑ Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. pp. 27-29.
  28. ↑ Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. p. 18.
  29. ^ Henry Bordeaux: Les Amours de Xavier de Maistre à Aoste . Dardel, Chambéry 1931.
  30. ^ Alfred Berthier: Xavier de Maistre: étude biographique et littéraire. Nombreux documents rares ou inédits. Two portraits . Slatkine, 1920. pp. 68-69.
  31. ↑ According to the inscription on a stone tablet
  32. ↑ Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. p. 43.
  33. ↑ Dal 1951 ad oggi . Agricole Régional Institute. Archived from the original on October 2, 2013. Retrieved on August 7, 2020.
  34. ^ Ceremonia di inauguration del rinnovato castello di Montfleury . Consiglio Regionale Valle d'Aosta. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
  35. ^ A b Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. p. 24.
  36. ^ A b Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. p. 22.
  37. ^ Bruno Orlandoni: Architettura in Valle d'Aosta . Volume 3 (on the reform of the 20th century). Priuli & Verlucca, Ivrea 1996. p. 189.
  38. ↑ a b c Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. p. 29.
  39. ↑ The “rotating sisters” are the sisters who are responsible for external relations in the convent of the Order of the Annunciation.
  40. ↑ Enciclopedia Italina; Lemma: Visitazione . Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  41. ^ A b Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. p. 32.
  42. ↑ Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. p. 30.
  43. ↑ The walling up of the French windows takes place gradually with the interventions of the Barilliers .
  44. ↑ a b c Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. p. 31.
  45. ↑ Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003. p. 40.
  46. ↑ Sandra Barberi: Imprenditori metallurgici e nuova edilizia urbana in Valle d'Aosta nel XVIII secolo: il caso dei Barillier in Bulletin de l'Académie St. Anselme . No. VIII (new series). 2003, p. 50.

swell

  • Chiara Devoti: Annotazioni storiche e letture di cantiere per il castello di Montfleury . Tipografia Valdostana, Aosta 2003.
  • André Zanotto: Castelli valdostani . Musumeci, Quart (1980) 2002. ISBN 88-7032-049-9 . P.56.
  • Andrea Désandré: Notabili valdostani: dal fascismo al fascismo. Viaggio a ritroso e ritorno . Le château, 2008. ISBN 8876370854 . Pp. 228-229.
  • Mario Bevilacqua: Il sistema delle residenze nobiliari: Italia settentrionale . Volume 1 in M. Fagiolo (editor): Atlante tematico del barocco in Italia . De Luca, 2009. pp. 65-66, 371.
  • Club alpino italiano: Bollettino . Issue 14, 1880. pp. 404-405.
  • Lin Colliard: Vecchia Aosta . Musumeci, Quart 1986.
  • Bruno Orlandoni: Architettura in Valle d'Aosta . Volume 3 (on the reform of the 20th century). Priuli & Verlucca, Ivrea 1996. pp. 188-192.
  • Sandra Barberi: Imprenditori metallurgici e nuova edilizia urbana in Valle d'Aosta nel XVIII secolo: il caso dei Barillier in Bulletin de l'Académie St. Anselme . No. VIII (new series). 2003. pp. 37-51.
  • André-Dominique Noussan: Notes sur Montfleury , appunti sparsi conservati in Seminario Maggiore di Aosta, Fondo Gal-Duc, vol. XL, n.48 , Note del canonico Dominique Noussan .
  • André-Dominique Noussan, Notes sur Montfleury , appunti sparsi conservati in Seminario Maggiore di Aosta, Fondo Gal-Duc, vol. XL, n.4 , Notes miscellaneous sur la famille Barillier .
  • Joseph-Auguste Duc: Histoire de l'Eglise d'Aoste . Volume VIII. Oeuvre de Saint-Augustin, Aosta-Saint-Maurice 1901–1915.

Web links

Commons : Castello di Montfleury  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 45 ° 43 '53.4 "  N , 7 ° 17' 54.4"  E