Chaumont Castle
Chaumont castle is located southwest of the city of Blois in the French commune of Chaumont-sur-Loire in the Loir-et-Cher in the region Center-Val de Loire . On a steep slope high above the Loire , it forms the backdrop for the village, whose houses line the river bank in a long row.
history
There was already a castle here in the Middle Ages . It was built by Count Odo I of Blois in the 10th century to protect Blois from the attacks of Foulques Nerra , Count of Anjou . He later left it to the Norman knight Gelduin, who fought as a vassal for the House of Blois, who had the fortress reinforced. Gelduin's son, Geoffroy, had no male successor and left the inheritance to his great niece, Denise de Fougères. She married Sulpice I of Amboise in 1054, so that ownership fell to the Amboise family , who would own the castle for the next five centuries.
12./15. century
Hugues I, Sire d'Amboise, second lord of Chaumont, replaced the wooden structure here with a stone tower , as in Montrichard, thereby strengthening the defense of the Amboise-Chaumont-Montrichard triangle. In the 12th century, the castle was razed anyway, but then rebuilt. A memorable event in 1170 was the meeting between Henry II of England and Thomas Becket , Archbishop of Canterbury . A funeral mass was read in the chapel, at which one did not need to exchange the kiss of peace after the liturgy , which was viewed as too obvious hypocrisy. As is known, Becket had the king banished from the church immediately after his return to England and was stabbed a little later in his cathedral by a murderer hired by the king.
In the 13th century the line of succession corresponded to the respective family relationships until the line "Chaumont d'Amboise" branched off in the 14th century, while the older line kept Amboise. The lord of Chaumont Castle, Pierre d'Amboise , was one of the conspirators against the king in the "League of the Common Good" ( Ligue du Bien public ). As a punishment, Ludwig XI. After he was victorious, grind the castle in 1465. However, after Pierre d'Amboise publicly apologized, he received his lands back after a short time and was allowed to rebuild the castle. The Forbearance of Louis XI. It soon bore fruit, because many of the 17 children that Pierre d'Amboise had with his wife Anne de Bueil, proved over the years to be particularly capable servants of the crown, church and art.
16./18. century
The new castle was originally designed as a military fortress. The construction work dragged on for three generations. In the period from 1469 to 1481, the north and west wings were built, which still had battlements and pit bay windows. In 1510 the construction work was finally finished. The windows of the south wing were already larger and the first influences of the Renaissance could not be overlooked.
Around 1560, the widowed French Queen Catherine de 'Medici acquired the castle in order to banish her long-time rival Diane de Poitiers , the influential mistress of the late King Henry II . In return, Katharina demanded the more comfortable Loire Castle Chenonceau , which the king had given to his lover during his lifetime. A frequent guest in Chaumont during this period was the Florentine astrologer Cosimo Ruggieri , who had come to France with the Queen's entourage. He set up a laboratory with an observatory in one of the castle towers , where he often met with the Queen.
In 1740 the owners decided to open the courtyard to the north and demolish the wing on this side. In the process, the building lost part of its defensive appearance, but on the other hand, one has since enjoyed a magnificent view of the Loire from the terrace. In the years that followed, the castle passed through several hands before it was sold to Jacques Le Ray in 1750. He installed a glass blowing workshop as well as a ceramic and pottery workshop in the branches of the castle and produced a. a. Terracotta medallions by an Italian artist.
19./20. century
During the French Revolution , Le Ray succeeded in protecting Chaumont Castle from destruction thanks to its factories. The forest was also not rated as a manor, but as a useful fuel supply for general use. The son of Le Rays, who sought his fortune in America, left the castle in 1810 for the time of his absence to Madame de Stael , who had been banned from Paris by Napoleon for publications critical of the regime and who traveled from Chaumont to Coppet near Geneva , where she went until 1812 lived under house arrest in Coppet Castle . In Chaumont she wrote her work "De l'Allemagne" and surrounded herself with a circle of aestheticians, including the poets August Wilhelm Schlegel and Adelbert von Chamisso .
In 1823, Le Ray l'Américain sold the castle. First it belonged to the Count of Aramon and then to Viscount Walsh. In 1875 the young heiress of the sugar empire Say finally bought the castle and married Prince Amédée de Broglie in the same year. The couple enjoyed extensively restoring the palace complex and developing a glimpse of court life in this environment. Chaumont became a luxury residence, furnished with furniture, wallpaper, pictures and art objects that were bought at great prices all over Europe. Even the horses were housed in a similarly elaborate manner, in luxurious and perfectly organized stables. The village also benefited: in 1882 the church was rebuilt and the residents received large donations.
However, the prince's death, the princess's remarriage with a lavish grand seigneur, and the economic crisis of 1929 sealed the fate of the castle. The state finally bought it in 1938 along with the associated 17-hectare park. Since then, the castle has been restored, refurbished and opened to the public.
architecture
Despite the open north side, Chaumont Castle gives the typical impression of a late stately fortress. The oldest parts are the north wing, which has now disappeared, as well as the west wing, the large Amboise tower and the first adjoining vault field of the south wing. Everything shows a Gothic style of fortification, characteristic of the 15th century, with battlements, machicolations , drawbridge and dry moat.
The rest of the reconstruction took place in a style that was already influenced by the Renaissance, but which continued to emphasize the general need for defense. The south wing, the entrance palace, the east wing and the chapel as well as the large staircase in the courtyard belonged to this construction phase. At the entrance building and on the monumental staircase, there are decorative motifs with an Italian feel that were introduced early on. After Pierre, his son Charles I and his grandson Charles II, the eldest of the siblings, took over the property. The reliefs on the round towers to the right and left of the drawbridge are due to the latter; the two intertwined "Cs" are the initials of Charles and his wife Catherine. The French coat of arms with the initials of Louis XII appears above the entrance portal . and his wife Anne de Bretagne ; the towers bear the coats of arms of Charles II and his influential uncle, Cardinal Georges d'Amboise.
Shortly after 1560, Diane von Poitiers had the parapet walkway built with machicolations on the entrance building and on the east wing, which had remained unfinished since 1510, and put her initials D, intertwined and alternating with hunting attributes, above the machicolations of the battlements.
The Count of Aramon also had important restoration work carried out between 1833 and 1843, which the Viscount Walsh continued. The de Broglie family carried out the restoration with the means at their disposal and with the help of the architect Paul-Ernest Sanson . In particular, the east wing was restored. In front of the top floor it was given a long corridor with shell decoration, modeled on the cornices of the Francis I wing in Blois Castle . A gallery was placed in front of the south wing. In addition, the courtyard was set up on the park side.
South side
Entrance lock
patio
Inner courtyard (west wing)
Chaumont Castle
interior
The rooms of the castle originally took up the entire width of the building. With the 18th century, the change in the way of life, as almost everywhere, also brought about a change in the spatial division. The “rooms” of the castle that were created in this way are now furnished with furniture from the 16th to 18th centuries. Noteworthy are u. a. that of the two rivals Catherine de Medici and Diana of Poitiers and the council chamber.
The rooms on the first floor show a series of Aubusson carpets with the "story of Alexander" (based on Charles Lebrun ). Some medallions made in the neighboring workshops are displayed in showcases. On the first floor you can find Brussels carpets, embroidered silks, Delft faience, Renaissance chests, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French furniture.
tour
- The council chamber is tiled with exceptional majolica from the 17th century, which the de Broglie family acquired in Italy and which comes from the Collutio Palace in Palermo in Sicily. The colored faience plates show a hunting scene.
- The guard room features a rare 20-bolt safe that weighs over 250 kg. The tapestry dates from the late 17th century and depicts a scene from the life of the Athenian general Cimon.
- The grand staircase to the private apartments of the de Broglie family is a spiral staircase set up at the end of the 19th century, which shows the increasing influence of the Italian style on French artists around 1500.
- The dining room was designed by the de Broglie family architect, Paul-Ernest Sanson. The fireplace bears the coat of arms of Cardinal Georges d'Amboise.
Council Chamber
Guard room
Grand staircase
Dining room (fireplace)
- In the billiard room , two Flemish tapestries can be seen from the late 16th century, representing two scenes from the life of the Carthaginian general Hannibal.
- The Great Salon contains the decor in the style of Louis XII created for the Viscount Walsh around 1850. The yellow brocade with flower pattern could be rewoven as part of the restorations carried out at the beginning of 2007 based on templates from the end of the 19th century.
- The chapel at the north end of the east wing was built in the splendid style and decor of the early 16th century and restored from 1884 to 1886. The windows, which were made from patterns by Jean-Paul Laurens , tell the story of Chaumont.
Billiard room
Big salon
Large salon (fireplace)
chapel
Park and garden
In the 16th century, as a former fortress, Chaumont gradually became more comfortable inside and out, but it still had no gardens. The Count of Aramon had numerous trees planted in the 19th century, especially cedars ; but only the Prince of Broglie created the ornamental park in 1884 with the garden architect Henri Duchêne . For this purpose he tore down two villages, moved the cemetery and church ... and had houses and church rebuilt on the plateau and on the banks of the Loire.
The park was laid out as an English landscape garden , undulating and with lawns surrounded by winding paths, with isolated or grouped trees - cedars, sequoias or native vegetation. Open spaces between trees and groups of trees create optical axes to the main attractions: the forest, the Loire Valley, and above all the castle.
Since 1992, around 30 landscape gardeners from different countries have presented their designs at the “Chaumont International Garden Show” every year from mid-June to mid-October.
Park view
Castle view
Garden Show 2008 - Le jardin Fragment'ère
literature
- Peter Claus Hartmann: French kings and emperors of the modern age. From Louis XII. until Napoleon III. 1498-1870 1498-1870 . Beck, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-406-38506-0 .
- Bernard Champigneulle: Loire castles . Prestel Verlag, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-7913-0276-0 , p. 144.
- Castles on the Loire . The green travel guide. Michelin Reise-Verlag, Landau-Mörlheim 1997, ISBN 2-06-711591-X , p. 158.
- Wilfried Hansmann : The Loire Valley. Castles, churches and cities in the «Garden of France» . 2nd Edition. DuMont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2006, ISBN 3-7701-6614-0 , p. 106 .
- Castles on the Loire - cities and monuments. Casa Editrice Bonechi, Florence, ISBN 88-476-0843-0 , p. 85.
- The castles on the Loire . Valoire-Estel, Blois 2006, ISBN 2-909575-73-X , p. 55
Web links
- Domaine régional de Chaumont-sur-Loire (fr.)
- Brief history of the castle
- Chaumont Castle as a 3D model in SketchUp's 3D warehouse
Coordinates: 47 ° 28 ′ 45 " N , 1 ° 10 ′ 55" E