Château de la Montagne

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17th century engraving.

Château de la Montagne ( Italian Casa di Montagna , also: De Poincy Château , Château de la Fontaine ) was a fortified palace in Saint Peter Basseterre on the island of St. Kitts . It was built in the 1640s by Governor Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy and stood until an earthquake in 1689. It was built in the Baroque style and was considered one of the most beautiful structures in the Caribbean .

history

Engraving from the 17th century with a view of the Château de la Montagne (u) and a plan of the Fort de la Madeleine in Guadeloupe (o).

Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy, the French governor of St. Christopher and a Knight of the Order of St. John , acquired the property " La Fontaine " in the early 1640s for the sum of 110,000 livres . The property was on high land above the town of Basseterre and de Poincy had the Château de la Montagne built on this property. The brick makers, blacksmiths, carpenters, stone cutters and lime kiln builders who were needed for this had been specially brought in from France. The property was managed by 100 servants and around 300 slaves.

Over the years the château was fortified with fortifications, external and internal walls and an arsenal. The original entrance opposite the palace was replaced by a heavily fortified entrance on the east side. The château was manned by a 50 man strong guard and equipped with bronze cannons.

After de Poincy's death in 1660, the castle became the property of the Order of St. John. It was probably destroyed in an earthquake in 1689. Some traces of the building, including a fountain and some red bricks, can still be seen today.

architecture

The Château de la Montagne was built as a mixture of Roman and French Baroque. The castle itself was a three-story building on a terrace and surrounded by a large courtyard. The luxurious interior was decorated with paintings and nautical maps. There was also a large library, the oldest known in the Caribbean.

The palace had ramparts and a moat. There were also additional facilities in the building, such as a church and quarters for the workers and servants. The slave quarters were outside the trench.

The château had its own water supply and was surrounded by a large garden full of exotic flowers and plants, decorated with numerous fountains. Stables and a pig pen stood in the background of the garden.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ kn.geoview.info .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Freller, Zammit 2015: 21–22.
  3. ↑ a b c Harrington 2003: 196-197.
  4. ↑ a b Freller, Zammit 2015: 56–57.
  5. ↑ Freller, Zammit 2015: 77–79.
  6. ↑ The De Poincy Chateau also called Chateau de la Fontaine . Extracted from the writings of an unknown French Author in 1658 as submitted by DL Matheson to the MIS Christmas magazine, 1962. Archived from the original on July 14, 2016.
  7. ^ French Connection . June 6, 2014. Archived from the original on July 14, 2016.

literature

Web links

Coordinates: 17 ° 20 ′ 0 ″  N , 62 ° 44 ′ 0 ″  W.