Manoir de Kerazan

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The Logis of Kerazan, view from south

The Manoir de Kerazan is a French country castle about halfway between Pont-l'Abbé and Loctudy . The complex is not only a typical example of a medium-sized Breton castle, but also one of the oldest mansions in the Bigouden country .

A fortified previous building from the 16./17. In the middle of the 18th century, it was expanded and converted into a representative country palace. This came about through marriage to the Astor family, whose last offspring bequeathed it to the Institut français in 1928 together with a large art collection . Linked to this was the requirement to open the house to the public as a museum.

On August 24, 2000, the entire complex - with the exception of a part of the farmyard - was added to the French list of monuments as a monument historique . It can be viewed for a fee from Easter to the end of September.

history

He bequeathed Kerazan to the Institut français: Joseph Georges Astor, portrait of Adolphe Déchenaud , 1920

The first known owners of the property were the Seigneurs of Kerazan, who received it as an after-fief from the Counts of Pont-l'Abbé. The Kerfloux family owned the property in the 16th and 17th centuries. At the end of the 16th or the beginning of the 17th century, she had a fortified manor house built on its current location . Kerazan was in her hands for eight generations before it came to Jean Sauvaget des Clos. He sold it to René de Drouallen in 1647. His granddaughter married her husband of the Le Gentil family, the Count of Rosmorduc, in 1710. Louis de Rosmorduc had the property changed and expanded in the 1760s to turn it into a homely country house. The house was raised by one storey and the window openings were enlarged. The facade facing the courtyard was given a classicist look. In 1765 a park belonging to the house was laid out.

Louis Ange Aimé de Rosmorduc emigrated during the French Revolution , but returned and became a leader of the anti- Republican Chouans . His castle was confiscated and sold as a national property on the 1st  Thermidor of the year II (July 19, 1794) for 46,000  livres to the architect and entrepreneur Louis Derrien from Quimper . His daughter sold it in 1847 to Alour Arnoult, a wealthy notary from Pont-l'Abbé. He changed the building both inside and out. Arnoult's daughter Noémie married Joseph Astor, who later became mayor of Quimper, and the couple took up residence on Kerazan. During the Second Empire , the Astors changed the building again. For example, were dormer windows of the 18th century replaced by newer ones. Joseph Astor was very interested in art. Together with the painter Alfred Beau , he organized the establishment of a regional museum of fine arts in Quimper, which opened in 1872 and mainly showed regional Breton art. At the same time he started building a collection of paintings in Kerazan. His son Joseph Georges expanded the art collection after his father's death in 1901. In the years 1912 to 1913 he had the castle enlarged by adding a pavilion and a stair tower to the logis on its north side . When he died childless in 1928, he bequeathed the property to the Institut français on the condition that an embroidery school for girls and a museum would be set up there. The school has since closed, but the museum still exists today.

description

building

The two-wing logis, on the left the classicist north wing, on the right the west wing from the 16th century

The palace complex consists of the two-wing logis and farm buildings from the 20th century to the west of it. The structure of the Logis belongs to several eras: the east wing dates from the 16th century and is still almost unchanged, but the other parts date to the 18th and 19th centuries. Building materials were granite and slate . The simple classical courtyard facade of the north wing has rusticated corner pilasters and the coat of arms of the Counts of Rosmorduc carved in stone. A round stair tower with a conical roof is attached to the north wing on the outside .

Castle Park

The castle is surrounded by a five hectare large English landscape garden surrounded. It was created in the 19th century by changing a baroque garden , some elements of which have been preserved. These include a boxwood garden and a chestnut -bestandene Avenue . A vegetable garden and a greenhouse bear witness to the fact that in the past the castle park was not only used for entertainment, but also for the care of the castle residents. Between the trees typical of Brittany such as beech , chestnut and apple trees, there are also some exotic plants scattered, such as Chinese hemp palms . A hook-shaped moat that once belonged to water features is now the preferred habitat of ducks and frogs.

museum

The exhibits in the museum and the interiors of the rooms in which they are shown illustrate very well the lifestyle of the Breton bourgeoisie in the second half of the 19th and the first quarter of the 20th century. These include, for example, the dining room with a dining table in the style of Louis XIII or formerly used for receptions Grand Salon ( French grand salon ) with a white paneling in the Louis XV style. Its special feature is a large crystal chandelier , the light of which is reflected in two large mirrors above the chimneys at the front of the room. Other rooms have paneling from the 18th and 19th centuries.

The paintings, drawings and engravings shown cover a period from the 17th century to the present day. You can see works by Maurice Denis ( Daphne and Chloe , 1918) and Charles Cottet ( The Corpus Christi procession in Landudec , around 1902), as well as paintings by local artists such as Alfred Beau and Ingres' student Auguste Goy . Embroidery on display reminds of the time when an embroidery school was housed in the castle. A large collection of painted faiences from Quimper completes the exhibition. It owns the world's unique, 1.20 meters measuring among others cello from China , for which the artist Alfred Beau at the 1878 World Exhibition in Paris was awarded a silver medal.

  • Big salon

  • dining room

  • The Corpus Christi procession in Landudec by Charles Cottet, around 1902

  • Painted porcelain violoncello by Alfred Beau

literature

  • Philippe Brissaud: Le Manoir de Kerazan. Ouest-France, Paris 1983, ISBN 2-85882-550-5 .
  • Noël Broëlec: Châteaux et manoirs de Bretagne. Minerva, Geneva [et al.] 1987, ISBN 2-8307-0040-6 , p. 60.
  • André Cariou: Le manoir de Kerazan. Publications Nuit et jour, Paris approx. 1994.
  • Michel de Mauny: Châteaux du Finistère. Nouvelles Éditions Latines , Paris n.d., p. 11.
  • Gwyn Meirion-Jones, Michael Jones: Lovable castles of Brittany. Ouest-France, Rennes 1991, ISBN 2-7373-0875-5 , p. 70.

Web links

Commons : Manoir de Kerazan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e History of the complex on the castle website , accessed on October 30, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b c Entry of the castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  3. ↑ a b M. de Mauny: du Finistère Châteaux. no year, p. 11.
  4. ↑ a b Presentation of the property on the castle website , accessed on November 2, 2015.
  5. ↑ Information about the Manoir de Kerazan on bretagne-reisen.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Accessed October 30, 2015.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bretagne-reisen.de  
  6. ↑ Information about the Astor family on the castle website , accessed November 2, 2015.
  7. ↑ G. Meirion-Jones, M. Jones: Lovable castles of Brittany. 1991, p. 70.
  8. ↑ a b Information on the palace gardens on bigouden.com , accessed on November 2, 2015.
  9. ↑ Information on Alfred Beau and his oeuvre on the castle website , accessed on November 3, 2015.

Coordinates: 47 ° 50 '30.1 "  N , 4 ° 11' 44.2"  W.