Ainay-le-Vieil castle

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Ainay-le-Vieil castle
Exterior view
Inner courtyard - wing of the building with stair tower

The castle Ainay-le-Vieil belongs to the French community Ainay-le-Vieil in the department of Cher in the region Center-Val de Loire . It is the southernmost castle of the Loire Valley and stands on the border of the Berry . The complex on the level cannot use any natural defensive elements and is therefore surrounded by a moat .

The castle stands in February 1968 as a monument historique under monument protection .

Building history

The origin of the Ainay-le-Vieil castle is likely a Gallo-Roman villa with agriculture that was later fortified . The castle bailiwick mentioned in the 12th century belonged to the Bourbons and passed to the powerful Sully family in the middle of the 13th century. Jean de Sully had the current complex built around 1330/1340, which came to the Culan family at the end of the 14th century.

In 1443 Jacques Cœur , Charles VII's finance minister , bought the property and sold it in December 1467 to Charles de Chevenon, Lord of Bigny. He began to build the residential building in the Italian-influenced late Gothic style. The work on this came to an end around 1510 under his son Claude and his wife Jacqueline de L'Hôpital. The building has two projecting wings and a stair tower ; however, restoration work carried out by the Marquis Jean-Baptiste de Bigny between 1855 and 1858 changed the building considerably. The whole complex is now surrounded by a polygonal curtain wall with round towers at the corners, the construction of which, however, cannot be precisely dated.

interior

In the “Great Salon ” the monumental fireplace with the letters “LA” reminds of the reception of King Ludwig XII. and Queen Anne de Bretagne by Claude de Bigny. In the castle chapel , the keystone is adorned with the coats of arms of Claude and Gilbert de Bigny and their wives. The church also has 17th century murals and stained glass windows attributed to master glassmaker Jean Lescuyer , who also created some of the windows in Bourges Cathedral .

literature

  • Auvergne - Berry . The green travel guide. Travel House Media, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-8342-8982-7 , p. 268.
  • Jean-Pierre Babelon: Châteaux de France au siècle de la Renaissance . Flammarion, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-08-012062-X , pp. 68 .
  • Susanne Girndt (Red.): Castles of the Loire . Bassermann, Niedernhausen 1996, ISBN 3-8094-0290-7 , pp. 20-21.
  • Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos, Robert Polidori : Castles in the Loire Valley . Könemann, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-89508-597-9 , p. 34-41 .

Web links

Commons : Ainay-le-Vieil castle  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Entry of the castle in the Base Mérimée
  2. ↑ J.-M. Pérouse de Montclos: Castles in the Loire Valley , p. 35.
  3. ↑ J.-M. Pérouse de Montclos: Castles in the Loire Valley , p. 40.

Coordinates: 46 ° 40 ′ 4.5 ″  N , 2 ° 33 ′ 0.6 ″  E