Assier Castle

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Preserved west wing of Assier Castle
Colored drawing of the castle from around 1680

The Assier Castle ( French Château d'Assier ) is a French castle ruin in the Lot department in the north of the Occitania region . It is located in the village of Assier in the cultural landscape of the Quercy .

Erected by Jacques Ricard de Gourdon de Genouillac, known as Galiot de Genouillac , by 1535 , the castle was one of the masterpieces of the early French Renaissance and at the same time the most important Renaissance building in the Quercy. Brantôme called it the most splendid and best-equipped house in France ( la plus superbe maison […] la mieux meublée […] de France ). The building has been owned by the French state since 1934 and has been classified as a monument historique since September 2, 1901 .

A small museum is now housed in the only preserved wing of the castle, which can be visited for a fee every day except Tuesdays from September to June and in July and August every day of the week. Art exhibitions or music events are sometimes held in the castle courtyard.

history

Client Galiot de Genouillac

Assier was owned by the de Bosc family (also Bosq) in the first half of the 15th century. Assier came to his family in 1469 through the marriage of the heir's daughter Catherine with Jean de Genouillac, who came from the lower nobility . Catherine's son Jacques made a steep career at the French royal court and became one of the highest dignitaries in France. He was a favorite of Charles VIII and held under him the post of Grand Stable Master of the Dauphin ( French grand écuyer du Dauphin ). He inherited from his paternal uncle in 1512 during the reign of Louis XII. the Office of the Royal Grand Master of Artillery French maître d'du roi artillery , which he also I. Franz held. He also appointed him Seneschal des Quercy in 1517 , before he entrusted him with the office of Grand Stable Master of France in 1526 and accepted him into the Order of Michael . Other posts that Jacques Ricard de Genouillac should hold in the course of his life were lieutenant general in the Guyenne and from 1546 governor of Languedoc . Through his numerous offices at court, Galiot de Genouillac had amassed a substantial fortune early on. Therefore, from around 1523, but perhaps also since his appointment as Seneschal des Quercy in 1517, he thought of replacing the old castle complex - called  Tour du Sal - inherited from his mother with a new building that was more appropriate to his upscale status. After partial demolition of his birthplace Jacques de Genouillac was in the same place after plans of the Toulouse architect Nicolas Bachelier to 1535 a castle in Renaissance style building, which of the new buildings Francis I in the Bois de Boulogne ( Castle Madrid ) and in Fontainebleau was inspired . Parts of the previous building that had been abandoned were taken over into the new building. Because of his many court offices and the resulting obligations, the client stayed in his new home only for a short time; he died in 1546 in Végennes Castle in the Limousin .

Jacques daughter Jeanne - his son François had already died in 1544 in one of Francis I's many military ventures - married Charles de Crussol , vicomte d'Uzès. As a result, the Assier Seigneurie, including the castle, passed to the Vice Counts and later Dukes of Uzès . However, these had no use for the construction and the castle remained uninhabited for a long time. The lack of maintenance of the building caused it to come down until François Emmanuel de Crussol finally sold three of the four wings of the castle, which had meanwhile become dilapidated, on May 22, 1768 for 14,000  livres for demolition to builders. This happened even though Prosper Mérimée, in his capacity as Inspecteur des monuments historiques de France, had already included the castle in the list of monuments historiques in 1841 . Only the west wing was left out of the sale as it was used for agricultural purposes. François Emmanuel de Crussol sold it on October 18, 1786 together with the lands belonging to the castle for 6,000 livres to Jean-Gabriel Murat de Montaï.

From 1901, the first maintenance measures were carried out on the still visible building fabric. The west wing received a new roof to protect the masonry from further water damage. The building has been owned by the French state since 1934. It has been restored and opened to the public.

architecture

main building

Site plan of the castle

Until it was partially demolished, Assier Castle was a closed, four-winged Renaissance complex with round corner towers and domed roofs. The palace wings surrounded a rectangular inner courtyard, the long side of which was 40 meters long. In its basic construction, the complex thus followed the late medieval fort type , in which the defense aspects were in the foreground compared to the aspects of representation and living. On the other hand, the castle already had some architectural elements that were typical of the Renaissance, such as transverse and cross-frame windows and galleries . An Italian garden south of the building completed the complex. Assier was a good example of the taste of the time, the transition from Gothic to Renaissance.

The main residential wing ( Logis ) with the stately apartments was the eastern wing of the building. There was also a small side entrance, which was accessible through a postern in the surrounding wall next to the Jeu de Paume . The north-east tower bordering the logis housed a chapel , while the south wing contained a large ballroom and other living rooms. A corridor connected this southern wing of the castle with an upstream semicircular latrine tower with a diameter of six meters.

The two floors of the north wing were formed by two superimposed galleries, of which the lower one was open, while the one on the first floor was closed and had a cross-vaulted ceiling. The gallery on the ground floor measured 36 × 4.60 meters and had five arcades supported by pillars . The outer wall of it still exists, on which the beginnings of its vaulted ceiling can be seen.

View into the castle courtyard

The only largely original part of the castle is the seven-meter-deep west wing, whose slightly bent gable roof rests on console stones. The up to nine feet thick masonry of its two storeys, separated by simple cornices , used to be plastered and from the outside presents itself in very simple forms. In addition to a still unchanged portico with a bust in the field of its triangular gable , the only elaborately designed structural element is the former main portal in the middle of the wing. As was quite common at the time, the entrance is divided into two parts: There is both a lockable passage for carriages and a small side door for lower-class visitors. The arched entrance is flanked by two Corinthian columns . Above it is a niche with Ionic columns on both sides, which once housed an equestrian statue of Galiot de Genouillac, which was destroyed during the French Revolution . Doric pilasters begin above the columns on both sides, with a cornice and a final triangular gable above a round arch. At both ends of the west wing there are two round towers , with a gap several meters wide between the northwest tower and the not completely preserved building wing . The southwest tower - named after its former function in the 18th century archive tower ( French Tour des archives ) - is still well preserved and is closed off by a conical roof. It has a connection to the ruins of a defensive tower standing to the south with a horseshoe-shaped floor plan, which is called Kanonenturm ( French Tour à canon ).

The gate passage equipped with cross vaults leads to the inner courtyard of the palace. Until 2012, this was surrounded by high metal structures, which marked the positions of the courtyard-side windows of the laid down castle wings.

Courtyard facade of the west wing

The courtyard-facing facade of the preserved west wing is much more richly decorated than the outside. Two elaborately designed Friesen from limestone to motifs are like sword, guns, sword belt and harness as well as the chain of the Order of Michael, as well as reliefs depicting the deeds of Hercules , recalling the successful career of the builder. The same military motifs can also be found in the outer frieze of the Saint-Pierre church, begun in 1540 in the center of Assier, which was also built by Galiot de Genouillac. Above the portal there is a balcony supported by four Corinthian columns with a richly relief-carved balustrade made of stone . Two Ionic columns support its roof. The year 1535, which was rediscovered during repair work in 1954, can be found on this loggia , which heralds the end of construction work on the castle. In the fields between the windows of the upper floor there used to be - surrounded by pilasters and festoons  - relief portraits of Roman emperors on terracotta - medallions from the workshop of Girolamo Della Robbias . Only one of them has survived on site, four more are now in the Louvre and one in London's Victoria and Albert Museum .

Large hall on the ground floor of the west wing

A small door, above which the stone coat of arms of Jacques Ricard de Gourdon de Genouillac is emblazoned, leads the visitor into the stairwell of the preserved wing. The staircase belonged to the “new style” at the time, that is, it was no longer a spiral staircase , as was common in the Middle Ages , but had straight runs . On the ground floor, a small museum with found remains of the castle's sculptural jewelry and an exhibition on Galiot de Genouillac is housed in a large hall with a pointed arch vault. The undestroyed complex had three staircases of this type, the two no longer preserved being larger than the one in the entrance wing. In addition, the upper floors could be reached through two stair towers in the inner courtyard. The stairwell has similarly elaborate carved decorations as the courtyard facade. In addition, there is also the motto of the client J'aime fort'une in numerous spelling variants , which can be read in two ways: as “I especially love someone” ( French: J'aime fort une ) and thus as a declaration of love to a woman or as an allusion to his predilection for wealth ( J'aime fortune ).

Only a wooden inlay door that can be seen in the museum , showing the chain of the Order of St. Michael and the coat of arms of Galiot de Genouillac, bears witness to the furniture, which was scattered to the wind in the 18th century through sales, and the once magnificent interior .

Pigeon tower

Outbuildings

Various outbuildings belonged to the palace complex, some of which are still preserved today. This includes a house for servants ( 44 ° 40 ′ 31.4 ″  N , 1 ° 52 ′ 47.9 ″  E ), which was later used as a barn and bears the name Grange de Bargues , and a pigeon tower ( 44 ° 40 ′ 43.4 ″  N , 1 ° 52 ′ 52.7 ″  E ), which with its 2,300 nesting holes is the largest in the Quercy. Both buildings date from the 16th century and have also been recognized as monument historique .

Other existing buildings belonging to the castle are the elongated stables on the eastern access road ( 44 ° 40 ′ 28.4 ″  N , 1 ° 52 ′ 37.6 ″  E ), the former slaughterhouse and an old water mill ( 44 ° 40 ′ 30 , 2 ″  N , 1 ° 52 ′ 46 ″  E ), which is also a listed building.

The former forge -  called Marinet - was still there in 1839, but has now disappeared. The hall for the Jeu de Paume , north of the main building, has also not survived.

literature

  • Jean-Pierre Babelon: Châteaux de France au siècle de la Renaissance . Flammarion, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-08-012062-X , pp. 262-266 .
  • Philippe de Cossé Brissac: Châteaux de France disparus . Editions Tel, Paris 1947.
  • Jean Depeyre: Le château d'Assier here et aujourd'hui. Histoire et archeology . In: Bulletin de la Société des Études du Lot . Volume 79. Société des Études du Lot, Cahors 1958, ISSN  0755-2483 , pp. 13-37.
  • Jacques Gardelles (Ed.): Le Guide des châteaux de France. Lot Hermé, Paris 1986, ISBN 2-86665-031-X , pp. 24-30.
  • Jacques Houlet: Châteaux du Lot . Nouvelles Éditions Latines , Paris [approx. 1970], pp. 3, 6.
  • Marie-Rose Tricaud: Speaking of château d'Assier. Avis de research . In: Bulletin de la Société des Études du Lot . Volume 120. Société des Études du Lot, Cahors 1999, ISSN  0755-2483 , pp. 51-60 ( digitized version ).
  • Marie-Rose Prunet-Tricaud: Le château d'Assier en Quercy . 3 volumes. Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris 2003.
  • Bruno Tollon: Le château d'Assier . In: Société Française d'Archéologie (Ed.) Quercy. Congrès Archéologique de France. 147e session . Société Française d'Archéologie, Paris 1993, pp. 137-149.
  • Paul Vitry. Château et église d'Assier . In: Société Française d'Archéologie (ed.): Congrès Archéologique de France. Ce session tenue à Figeac, Cahors et Rodez en 1937 . A. Picard, Paris 1938, ISSN  0069-8881 , pp. 330-350 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Assier Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ Information according to the information board on site
  2. ↑ a b Assier. Le bel endormi de la Renaissance . In: La Dépêche du Midi . July 28, 2011 ( online ).
  3. ↑ Pierre de Bourdeilles: Œvres complètes de Pierre de Bourdeilles seigneur de Brantôme . Volume 3. Renouard, Paris 1867, p. 73 ( digitized version ).
  4. ↑ Entry of the castle ruins in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  5. ^ A b Jean-Pierre Babelon: Chateaux de France au siècle de la Renaissance. 1989, p. 262.
  6. ↑ Liliane Châtelet-Lange: Galiot de Genouillac entre Fortune et Prudence . In: Revue de l'art . No. 64, 1984, ISSN  0035-1326 , p. 19.
  7. ↑ a b c Bruno Tollon: Le château d'Assier. 1993, p. 139.
  8. ^ Gabriel Roques: Histoire de Quercy et Rouergue. Notre belle France . Société d'édition et de publications, Paris 1911, p. 90 ( digitized version ).
  9. ↑ The literature gives different dates for the start of construction. They vary between 1510 and 1526.
  10. ↑ a b Bruno Tollon: Le château d'Assier. 1993, p. 148, note 14.
  11. ↑ Brief description of the castle and church of Assier ( Memento of July 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ).
  12. ↑ Bruno Tollon: Le château d'Assier. 1993, p. 140.
  13. ↑ a b Bruno Tollon: Le château d'Assier. 1993, p. 141.
  14. ↑ Bruino Tollon: Le château d'Assier. 1993, p. 142.
  15. ↑ Eusèbe Girault de Saint-Fargeau (ed.): Guide pittoresque du voyageur en France . Volume 4, 59th delivery. Firmin Didot, Paris 1838, p. 13 ( digitized version ).
  16. ↑ a b Bruno Tollon: Le château d'Assier. 1993, p. 144.
  17. ↑ In older publications you can often find the information that the equestrian statue was one of King Francis I.
  18. ^ Jean Calmon: Observations faites au cours des travaux de moulage sur la porte d'entrée du château d'Assier . In: Bulletin de la Société des Études du Lot . Volume 88.Société des Études du Lot, Cahors 1967, ISSN  0755-2483 , p. 137 ( digitized version ).
  19. ^ A b Jean-Pierre Babelon: Chateaux de France au siècle de la Renaissance. 1989, p. 266.
  20. ^ Charles Daney: Quercy . Renaissance Du Livre, Tournai 2004, ISBN 2-8046-0879-4 , p. 90.
  21. ↑ Ancien Logis "Grange de Bargues" in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  22. ↑ Ancien Pigeonnier du Château in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)

Coordinates: 44 ° 40 ′ 29 "  N , 1 ° 52 ′ 42"  E