Chenonceau Castle
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The Chenonceau Castle is a moated castle in the French town of Chenonceaux in the Indre-et-Loire department of the Center-Val de Loire region . Its main building stands - surrounded by water - on the northern bank of the Cher , while the gallery built later bridges the river. Located in the heart of the Touraine , about twelve kilometers south of the Loire near Amboise , Chenonceau is one of the Loire castles . It is also the only one with Montsoreau built directly in the river bed, the Cher for Chenonceau and the Loire for Montsoreau.
Every year around 800,000 tourists visit the complex, making Chenonceau the most visited castle in France after Versailles . The “most elegant, finest and most original of the Loire castles” is also called the Ladies' Castle ( French Château des Dames ), because it was almost always women who determined its history and fate.
Its roots lie in a fortified property with a watermill that came into the possession of the French crown through the Bohier family in the first half of the 16th century. Diane de Poitiers shaped the appearance of the palace through extensions, as did her successor Catherine de Medici , to whom the complex owes its famous gallery.
After the buildings had been abandoned and no longer inhabited since the end of the 17th century, the castle was bought by the wealthy tax farmer Claude Dupin in 1733 . His wife Louise then brought it back to life. The daughter of the wealthy banker Samuel Bernard and granddaughter of a member of the Comédie-Française ran a salon on Chenonceau, making it a meeting place for well-known writers and spiritually interested members of the upper class of society. The descendants of Dupin sold Chenonceau in 1864 to the wealthy chemist Théophile-Jules Pelouze to whose wife Marguerite began the entire family fortune to the castle building restoration . Their efforts have been continued since 1951 by the new owners, the family of the chocolate manufacturer Menier .
The castle consists of an almost square residential building, which is adjoined by a gallery to the south. The two buildings stand in the waters of the Cher. To the north of this is the former keep of the previous complex - called Tour des Marques - on an island surrounded by moats , which is flanked by two Renaissance gardens to the east and west . In addition, a former agricultural estate , an orangery and a chancellery - the Chancellerie - and a former farm wing belong to the palace complex. They are all north of the main building. This, together with the gallery, was placed under monument protection as early as 1840 . The gardens and park followed in November 1962.
history
The almost 800 year old history of Chenonceau was almost always shaped by women, at whose behest the castle was expanded to its present appearance. Women made it the center of extravagant festivities of the French royal court and at times a meeting place for illustrious guests from art and culture.
Residents and owners
Castle and chateau in private ownership
Chenonceau was first mentioned in writing in the 13th century. An existing mill property there had been owned by the Lords of Marques since the 1230s. At the end of the 15th century, the family got into financial difficulties, so that their head, Pierre de Marques, was forced from 1496 to gradually sell lands belonging to the family. The buyer was the same man every time: Thomas Bohier. But the sales did not solve the Marques family's financial problems. In 1512 the remaining property - consisting of a fortified castle house with an associated mill in the Cher and some land - was put up for auction, and again it was Thomas Bohier - meanwhile owner of all other lands surrounding Chenonceau - who acquired the Marqueser property. For a final payment of 12,500 livres , he also became the owner of the castle and the associated mill on February 8, 1513 .
Bohier had under Charles VIII and Louis XII. Made a career at the French royal court and during the reign of Francis I first held the office of general tax collector in Normandy , then that of royal finance secretary. Raised by the king to the nobility , Bohier accompanied him on his Italian campaigns, so that he was represented in Chenonceaux during his absence by his wife Catherine Briçonnet. She was the niece of the influential financier Jacques de Beaune-Semblançay .
Property of the royal family
After the death of Thomas Bohier in 1524, Franz I arranged for a financial audit to be carried out afterwards to control his administration. Irregularities came to light that Bohier was blamed for. According to the results of the investigation, he had embezzled money. Although this could never be proven beyond doubt, the king made claims of 190,000 livres tournois against Thomas' son Antoine. In order to be able to settle this claim, Antoine left Chenonceau to the crown in May 1535, which Francis I then used as a hunting lodge. The Constable Anne de Montmorency moved on behalf of the king in the castle district. However, the official reason given for his assignment was that Antoine had wanted to please the king.
When Henry II ascended the French throne in 1547, he gave the castle to his mistress Diane de Poitiers, who he made Duchess of Valentinois in 1548 . She had numerous changes made to the castle and made use of her good relations with the royal court to not only have Chenonceau as a gift, but to acquire it officially. To do this, Diane had the contract with which Antoine Bohier ceded the castle to the crown, annulled, so that he became the owner of the complex again. However, he was again debtor of the crown, so that the castle was confiscated and offered for sale by auction. As expected, the bid was awarded to Diane de Poitiers, who officially acquired the property in 1555 with her own money.
After the death of Henry II, his widow Katharina von Medici became regent for her son Franz II, who was in poor health . She had long wanted to own Chenonceau and used her newfound power to drive her hated competitor out of the castle. She forced Diane to trade it for Chaumont Castle. Katharina held lavish parties in Chenonceau in honor of her sons and daughters-in-law, which often lasted several days and often had the character of extravagant orgies. On the occasion of Francis II's accession to the throne, the first royal fireworks display in France took place at Chenonceau Castle under the direction of Catherine. She also initiated the construction of the large gallery and, like her predecessor, had a garden laid out.
Catherine de Medici bequeathed the castle, which she loved so much, to her daughter-in-law Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont , the wife of Henry III. of France . After his murder in August 1589, she wore only white mourning clothes in accordance with courtly custom, which earned her the nickname The White Queen . For eight years she lived completely withdrawn on Chenonceau. As an expression of her sadness, she had her room clad with black paneling , the covers of her furniture were made black, and she spent her time praying, embroidering and reading. Capuchin women, who lived in a convent- like community in the attic of the castle, were responsible for their souls . Financial difficulties forced Louise de Lorraine to leave Chenonceau in 1597 and move to the Castle of Moulins . A contract dated December 24 of the same year set Gabrielle d'Estrées , Henry IV's mistress , in all rights and duties as Louise's successor. Gabrielle had first met the castle that year when she was visiting with her king. Her son César de Vendôme was betrothed to Louise's niece Françoise de Lorraine-Mercœur as a child , and the royal widow gave Louise and her future husband Castle Chenonceau as a wedding present in 1601.
Unused and neglected
Since the two fiancés were too young to exercise their rights themselves, Chenonceau remained under the care of César's mother, Gabrielle d'Estrées. But neither she nor her son and his future wife used it as a residence. César de Vendôme officially became the owner of the property through his wife in 1624, but he preferred Anet Castle as his place of residence and left the administration of Chenonceau and the lands belonging to it to his wife. But she did not use it as a residence either, it remained abandoned for years. César was succeeded by his son Louis as lord of the castle, who was succeeded by Louis II Joseph de Bourbon and his brother Philippe from 1669 . Under her aegis , many pieces of the valuable interior as well as works of art and books that Catherine de Medici and Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont had collected were either brought to other preferred residences (e.g. Anet Castle) or sold to Louis XIV and given away. For example, the statues came to Versailles from the niches in the gallery.
After Louis Joseph's death, his wife Marie-Anne de Bourbon-Condé inherited the property, who left it to her mother Anna Henriette von Pfalz-Simmern , Princess of Condé, when she died in 1718 . This sold the castle in 1720 to the Duke of Bourbon , Louis IV. Henri .
A second heyday
In 1733, Claude Dupin, tax tenant and later administrator of the royal crown property , acquired the rather dilapidated castle. His second wife Louise then revitalized it by holding philosophical and literary salons there and making Chenonceau the meeting point of the most famous writers and philosophers of their time. Voltaire , Montesquieu , Buffon and Madame de Deffand as well as Fontenelle , Marivaux and Madame de Tencin were guests there . From 1747, possibly even from 1740 onwards, Madame Dupin employed a young man as secretary and tutor for her son, who would later make a name for himself across Europe: Jean-Jacques Rousseau .
Louise Dupin died in 1799 and was buried in the Chenonceau Park on the south bank of the Cher. It was thanks to their reputation and popularity among the population that the castle survived the French Revolution unscathed and was not looted or damaged by revolutionaries. The different spelling of the castle name (Chenonceau) and the place (Chenonceaux) supposedly goes back to them. By omitting the X - a sign of royal possession - from the name of the castle, she is said to have expressed her attachment to the republican idea during the French Revolution. Although this connection has not been proven, it was Louise Dupin who was the first to write the castle name without an X at the end. She left the castle to her great-nephew, a Count of Villeneuve, after whose death in 1863 his heirs Chenonceau sold to Théophile Pelouze in 1864.
19th and 20th centuries
Pelouze's wife Marguerite made it her life's work to restore the castle at great financial expense, and continued the old tradition of pompous celebrations in the castle. For example, she offered French President Jules Grévy , her brother's father-in-law, a Venetian feast with gondolas on the Cher, which she had specially brought from Venice . The preservation and restoration of the complex in the state of the 16th century devoured Marguerite Pelouze's entire fortune. In 1888 she was completely in debt and had to cede Chenonceau to her bank. She had it auctioned in 1913. The buyer was the chocolate manufacturer Henri Menier, whose family is still the owner today. During the First World War , the gallery served as a hospital.
From 1940 to 1942 there was the curious situation in the castle that the demarcation line between Vichy-France , the so-called “free zone” ( French “zone libre” ), and the northern part of the country occupied by German troops along the Cher and therefore across it the building ran. While the main entrance was in an occupied area, the south exit of the gallery was in the free part, so that the castle was a frequently used escape route.
The drop in the water level of the Cher due to persistent drought to 0.30 m in April 2019 (compared to 1.20 m otherwise at this time of the year) threatens the wooden posts due to the access of oxygen. With a special permit, the prefecture therefore ordered the opening of a needle weir 1.5 km upstream to raise the water level.
Building history
The beginnings
Finds of hewn flint suggest that the banks of the Cher were already inhabited in prehistoric times, but it was not until the first half of the 13th century that knowledge of the appearance of what was then Chenonceau was known. The medieval castle of the Marques family was a rectangular complex with round corner towers on the northern bank of the Cher, which fed the moats with water. A fortified water mill stood in the river behind this system. Because Jean I. Marques had participated in a rebellion against the king, Charles VI. Jean's property grinded in 1411 as punishment by Marshal Jean II Le Maingre . Jean II Marques received permission from Charles VIII and Louis d'Amboise in 1432 to rebuild and fortify his family's property.
The Logis Thomas Bohiers
After Thomas Bohier had acquired all of the Marques family's lands in 1513, he began demolishing the Chenonceau buildings that same year. He only left the keep standing and redesigned it in early Renaissance forms. In 1515 work began on the construction of a new castle on the foundations of the former water mill. Chenonceau was built around the same time as Azay-le-Rideau Castle and earlier than most of the other Loire castles. It is one of the first Renaissance buildings in France. It is still unknown to this day which architect provided the plans. In the year construction began, work on the construction of a central vestibule was completed. Due to his professional obligations, Thomas Bohier was traveling in Italy until 1521 and was therefore unable to supervise the construction work himself. His wife Catherine Briçonnet represented him in these matters, so that the modern arrangement of the rooms is attributed to her. The new building was completed in 1522. In 1521/22 the lord's uncle, Cardinal Antoine Bohier, was present in Chenonceau to consecrate the chapel . Older depictions claim that Bohier's construction plans included the component that Chenonceau would later make known because of its uniqueness: a gallery. However, this has now been refuted and resulted from the incorrect interpretation of an old document.
At that time, a 1 acre fruit and vegetable garden belonged to the castle to supply the castle residents. Nothing is known about its exact appearance. It is certain, however, that the long access avenue already existed at the beginning of the 16th century , which at the time was lined with elms and oaks .
Chenonceau under Diane de Poitiers
Diane de Poitiers had a decisive influence on Chenonceau's appearance. One of her lasting legacies was the creation of a two-hectare garden from 1551. The gardens of Blois and Amboise, designed by the Italian landscape architect Pacello da Mercogliano , served as a model . The first work on this included elevating the area northeast of the castle by backing up earth and supporting it with stakes on the side facing the Cher. On the other three sides, the area was surrounded by trenches that were fed by the Cher.
The garden was one of the most spectacular and modern of its time. For his beds and parterres , owners of the most beautiful gardens in the Touraine donated flowers and plants, including rare plants such as artichokes and melons. Among the donors were, for example, the Archbishop of Tours , who also sent his own gardener to support the Cher, and his vicar general Jean de Selve. The latter was a friend and supporter of Bernard Palissys , who a few years later would also work in Chenonceau.
The work on the Dianes de Poitiers garden took around five years and cost more than 5000 livres. This paid for , among other things, 7,000 rubble stones, 1,100 loads of turf, 13,000 hawthorns and hazelnut bushes for hedges and arbours, as well as currant bushes, wild roses , lilies , apple and peach trees. As many as 9,000 violets and wild strawberries were collected from the surrounding forests to be planted in the garden.
The Duchess of Valentinois also had a park laid out on the southern bank of the Cher, which was only accessible by boat. To make it more accessible, the idea of building a bridge over the river was born in 1555. Diane de Poitiers hired Philibert Delorme to carry out this plan. He designed an arched bridge with a low gallery so that the new building could not only be used as a connection to the other bank of the river, but also as a ballroom, because at that time parties always had to be celebrated outdoors because the palace did not have sufficiently large rooms . Only the bridge was built, however, because construction work was interrupted in 1559 by the death of Heinrich II, when construction of the gallery had not yet started. A pen drawing shows the state of construction between 1559 and 1576. It shows the completed arch bridge, at the southern end of which there is a fortified gate with a drawbridge .
Changes under Catherine de Medici
It was Katharina von Medici who - after driving her long-term rival from the castle - had the gallery planned by Delorme built between 1570 and 1576. At a festival in honor of Heinrich III. the new building was inaugurated in May 1577. To this day it is not possible to say with any certainty who the architect was and is controversial among building historians. Both Denis Courtin and Jean Bullant , who succeeded Delorme as the Queen's first architect, are eligible. While Jean-Pierre Babelon (see literature ) names Bullant as the architect of the gallery, Jean Guillaume refers to the very different décor compared to the facilities of Écouen and Fère-en-Tardenois . At least Bullant was commissioned by Katharina with plans to enlarge the castle building. The result was a huge renovation project that would have enlarged the existing buildings ten times and that the French architect Jacques I. Androuet du Cerceau recorded in several engravings. But few things came out of the plans; including a wing of the farm building in the period from 1580 to 1585. There Katharina built a silkworm farm and introduced this profession to France. She also had the lodging changed. A connecting structure was erected on the small terrace between the chapel and the cabinet extension, which ensured a smooth finish to the northeast facade. The prestigious north facade was also redesigned: the window areas were doubled and caryatids and atlases were placed between them.
In addition, Katharina did the same as her rival Diane de Poitiers and had the garden of Catherine de Medici laid out. Begun in 1563 according to plans by Bernard Palissy, in addition to a large water basin surrounded by flower and shrub beds in what is now called Jardin Vert , he also owned an aviary , a menagerie , a sheep farm and an artificially created grotto. In addition, the regent imported lemon and orange trees for the gardens and planted over 1000 mulberry trees for the planned sericulture.
Standstill
Louise de Lorraine retired to Chenonceau after the death of her husband and had her bedroom, which was in the central wing built by Catherine de Medici between the chapel and the cabinet, covered with black paneling. After that, the buildings were not changed for a long time.
It was only under Louise Dupin that changes were made again. She had the gallery's attic divided into small apartments and a small theater set up in which, among other things, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's opera Le devin du village and his comedy L'Engagement téméraire were premiered. Louise Dupin also saved the palace chapel from being destroyed during the French Revolution by turning it into a wood store.
First restorations in the 19th century
Marguerite Pelouze had the castle extensively restored from 1865 to 1878 at great financial expense. The architect in charge was Félix Roguet , a student of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc . With the help of engravings by Jacques I. Androuet du Cerceau, all the buildings in the palace complex were restored to their 16th century state. The lady of the castle had the intermediate building with Louises de Lorraine's bedroom demolished and the mourning paneling was then attached to the ceiling of the gallery. She also had the caryatids and atlases removed from the north facade and set up east of the avenue in the park. During the work, the interior of the logis was also renewed - albeit not in an authentic condition - and the completely overgrown gardens were restored.
The 20th century
The current state of the Chenonceau castle complex is the result of further extensive restoration work that has been carried out continuously for more than 50 years. In the summer of 1951, Hubert Menier and his wife decided to rebuild the property. At that time all the roofs of the buildings were covered and the Dianes de Poitiers garden was completely destroyed by a flood on May 7, 1940. The Menier family hired the architect Bernard Voisin for the reconstruction work. Renewed restoration work in the interior of the logis was just as necessary as clearing the large park from dense undergrowth. One of the last measures carried out so far was the renovation of the former horse stables in the farm buildings in 2000 .
Description of the castle complex
An approximately 330 meter long avenue of plane trees with moats on the sides leads in a straight line to a lawn ground floor, the entrance area of which is flanked by two sphinx statues from the reign of Louis XIV. They are probably from Chanteloup Castle . To the south of the ground floor is an island surrounded by moats with the former keep of the complex. From there, the main building of the castle with its adjoining gallery over the Cher can be reached via a bridge. To the west of the avenue are the castle's former agricultural estate and the orangery.
A complex of former farm buildings flanks the west side of the lawn parterre. From there, both the Dianes de Poitiers Garden to the east and the Catherine de Medici Garden to the southwest can be entered.
architecture
Manor and former farm buildings
The buildings of the agricultural castle estate date from the 16th century and have had many different uses over the centuries. Once built to supply the residents of the castle, they are now partially used as a furniture store and flower shop, but their original purpose is being pursued again today. The 10,000 m² area of the former vegetable garden belonging to the estate is used by a nursery, which supplies the castle with fresh flower arrangements several times a week.
The elongated wing with the former farm buildings on the western edge of the lawn parterre is called Bâtiment de Dômes (German: Dome building ) and is one of the few projects from the extensive expansion plans of Catherine von Medici that was actually implemented. In the early days there were apartments for servants and a silkworm farm initiated by Katharina before the building was converted into horse stables in the 19th century. The two-story building is made of light limestone and has a roof in the shape of an overturned ship's keel. Its center with the arched portal has a tower-like top with a clock on the upper floor, which is closed off by a lantern . The corners of the building wing, the roof of which is fitted with dormer windows at regular intervals , are formed by pavilion towers.
The former keep
On an island in front of the main building is the keep of the previous complex, which is named Tour des Marques after its long-term owner family . Despite a renovation under Thomas Bohier in the early Renaissance style, it still has its battlements with machicolations , which at that time were only used for decorative purposes. As in many parts of the castle, Bohier used the initials TBK (the first letters of his name and his wife's first name) and the motto "S'il vient a point, me souviendra" (German: "When it is finished, it will remember me ”) immortalized.
The round tower has a conical helmet covered with slate shingles with a lantern at the end. Its three floors are accessed via a stair tower , in which the tower portal is also located. This, like the majority of the windows, is framed by pilasters . As an additional ornament, some of the windows on the parapet floor have small gables in the shape of a keel arch with shell filling.
In front of the tower is the only other remnant of the medieval castle complex: the former castle fountain. Its wall is decorated with a chimera and an eagle sculpture, the emblem of the Marques family.
The main building with the gallery
A bridge on its south side connects the foothills to the main building of the castle, known as the logis . The three-storey building made of white limestone has a square floor plan and stands on two stone foundation blocks in the middle of the river. On the ground floor, the logis has been extended by two extensions on its northeast side, which house a chapel and a cabinet and border a small terrace between them.
The first Italian influences on French architecture can be seen in the main building. The three-axis north facade with its centrally located portal is completely symmetrical in the arrangement of the window and door openings. The balcony above the portal has a parapet that is decorated with an elaborately designed baluster frieze. This frieze is repeated as a continuous cordon cornice on corbels under the eaves of a slate roof and is only interrupted on the northeast side by the additions of the chapel and the cabinet. All windows are framed by pilasters that stand on horizontal cornices. The triaxiality is maintained in the attic where there are three hatches, of which the hatch on the central axis is larger than the two adjacent ones. Together with the outside chimneys, they have an extraordinarily diverse sculptural decoration in the form of arabesque friezes, medallions , triangular gables, candelabra and shell arches .
To the south of the Logis is a bridge with five arches over the Cher, which carries a simple, three-storey gallery in the style of French classicism and gives the castle its unmistakable silhouette. Your bricks are not plastered. The top floor has nine regularly arranged portholes with ox eyes on each of its long sides .
inside rooms
The interior of the main building impresses with an extraordinary abundance of old and valuable furniture as well as numerous works of art. The collection of paintings located in the castle is based primarily on Marguerite Pelouze's collecting activities and includes numerous old masters .
The symmetry of the facades is continued inside through a corresponding room division. Four almost equally large rooms are arranged around a central vestibule on all floors.
ground floor
The vestibule on the ground floor can be entered through a monumental, two-winged wooden portal. The door dates from the time of Franz I and is richly decorated with colorful paintings and carvings. The left door leaf shows the coat of arms of Thomas Bohier, its right counterpart that of his wife Catherine Briçonnet. The heraldic animal Franz I, the salamander, and the Latin inscription FRANCISCVS DEI GRATIA FRANCORVM, CLAVDIA FRANCORVM REGINA (German: “Franz by God's grace, King of France, Claude, Queen of the French”) can be found above the lintel . Above the door, a stained glass window by Max Ingrand shows a scene from the life of St. Hubertus .
The central vestibule, together with the staircase to the first floor, is based on Italian models and for the first time offered an alternative to the arrangement of the rooms along a long gallery that was customary in France until then. The room has a ceiling with ribbed vaults from 1515, the keystones of which are not attached in a straight line, but always alternate on three different axes. At 3.5 meters, it is half as wide as the adjacent rooms. The floor is covered with enamelled tiles. Their ornamentation with geometric figures is no longer present in most places due to wear and tear and is only recognizable in the marginal areas that are rarely used.
Behind the entrance, on the left, an oak door with rectangular cartridges and the two namesake cartridges of the builders - Saint Catherine and Saint Thomas - on the door wings leads to the garden hall ( French Salle des gardes ), which was used as a dining room after the Middle Ages. The majolica covering of the floor, which originated in Italy, has already been removed and is only preserved at the edges. The hall has a beamed ceiling with paneled paneling and a fireplace from the 16th century that shows Thomas Bohier's coat of arms. Flemish tapestries from the 16th century with scenes from the life of the castle hang on the walls .
The garden hall is joined to the east by the palace chapel in the late Gothic style . It has a rectangular floor plan and a three-bay apse . The colorful leaded glass windows were made by Max Ingrand in 1954 because the originals were destroyed in a bomb attack in 1944. The chapel's furnishings also include a relief of a Madonna and Child made of Carrara marble , which was made in the 16th century by the Italian sculptor Mino da Fiesole . The queens watched the mass from a wooden gallery above the entrance from 1521, during which the guards posted to protect them apparently got bored from time to time and therefore passed the time with wall graffiti. Two of these are still preserved today. One is from a Scottish Guard Maria Stuart's from 1543, the second from 1546.
The second room on the east side of the vestibule is named Zimmer Dianes de Poitiers ( French Chambre de Diane de Poitiers ) after its former occupant . Tapestries from the same Flemish workshop as those in the garden room hang on the walls . According to their motives, they are named Triumph of Strength and Triumph of Mercy . The focal point of the room is the fireplace attributed to Jean Goujon with a modern portrait of Catherine de Medici. The chimney bears the gilded initials of Henry II and his wife (Hs and Cs) on its cornice. These letters are also repeated in the coffered ceiling of the room. Its other valuable pieces of equipment are two chairs with a cover made of Corduan leather and the painting Madonna and Child attributed to Bartolomé Esteban Murillo .
A door leads from the Dianes de Poitiers room to the cabinet extension. It served Katharina von Medici as a study with an adjoining small library. The beamed ceiling of the study with green painting on tin foil - showing intertwined Cs - together with a green wall covering gave the extension its name: Green Cabinet ( French Cabinet Vert ). The motifs of a 16th-century Brussels tapestry hanging on the wall are inspired by the discovery of America and its flora and fauna. The library has an elaborately designed coffered ceiling made of oak with the initials of the first two castle owners. Dating from 1525, it is the oldest surviving ceiling of its kind in France. Numerous valuable paintings by old masters hang in a small space in these two small rooms, for example by Jacopo Tintoretto (including Salomon with the Queen of Sheba ), Jacob Jordaens (The Drunken Silenus) , Hendrick Goltzius (Samson and the Lion) , Nicolas Poussin , Antonio da Correggio and van Dyck .
Viewed from the vestibule, opposite the Dianes de Poitiers room is the Salon Franz I ( French Salon de François Ier ). It was named after two visits by the French king, who was hosted by Catherine Briçonnet in the castle. On the ledge of the large Renaissance chimney, as on the Tour des Marques, there is Thomas Bohier's motto (see The former keep ). The walls are covered with painted linen wallpaper from the 19th century, which imitates the leather wallpaper popular in the 16th century. It includes a self-portrait of van Dyck, Gabrielle d'Estrées as the hunting goddess Diana by Ambroise Dubois , The Three Graces by van Loo and Primaticcio's famous portrait of Dianes de Poitiers as the huntress. An Italian cabinet stands out under the furniture . The piece of furniture, made in the 16th century by a Florentine master, has inlays made of mother-of-pearl and ivory , which are decorated with pen drawings. It was a wedding present to Francis II and Maria Stuart.
The fourth living room on the ground floor is named after the last French king who stayed at Chenonceau Castle, the Salon of Louis XIV ( French Salon de Louis XIV ). A large portrait of the Sun King by Hyacinthe Rigaud on the walls covered with carmine-red fabric is a reminder of his visit. Ludwig gave the painting to the lord of the castle, his uncle, the Duke of Vendôme, as a gift. Its elaborately carved frame has a ducat gold edition. The large, white stucco chimney shows the heraldic animals Franz I and his wife Claude de France , the salamander and the ermine in gold . Its appearance is the result of a restoration in the 19th century. In addition to Rigaud's portrait of the king, works by other well-known painters can be found in this room, including Rubens' The Boy Jesus and Saint John , a portrait of the former castle owner Louise Dupin by Jean-Marc Nattier and one by Nicolas Mignard showing her father Samuël Bernard.
First floor
As with the vestibule, Chenonceau also treads new architectural paths with the staircase shape. Thomas Bohier had a staircase based on Italian models built with two straight runs, instead of using the spiral staircase that was still common in France at the time . It is probably the second staircase ever built in France in this form. Such a staircase had only previously been built in Bury Castle , but it is no longer preserved today. The staircase has a barrel vaulted ceiling with keystones and cassettes in the ancient style and leads to the vestibule on the first floor, also known as the Catherine Briçonnets vestibule . The room layout on this floor - with the exception of the chapel extension - is identical to that of the ground floor.
The vestibule has a tiled floor and an exposed beam ceiling. 17th century tapestries from Oudenaarde hang on its walls . Her motifs based on models from van der Meulen show scenes from a par force hunt . Medallions that Catherine de Medici brought from Italy can be found above the lintels. They show the portraits of Roman emperors.
To the left of the stairs is the Gabrielles d'Estrées room ( French: Chambre de Gabrielle d'Estrées ). The former mistress of Henry IV used this room as a bedroom for the duration of her temporary stays in the castle. In addition to a beamed ceiling and a tiled floor, it has a large fireplace from the Renaissance period. The tapestries based on patterns by Lucas van der Leyden or Lucas van Nevele also date from this era.
On the other side of the stairs is the former bedroom of Césars de Vendôme ( French: Chambre de César de Vendôme ), Gabrielle's son with Henry IV. Furniture from the 16th century, from a three-part tapestry series from the 17th century to be added. The renaissance fireplace has only had Thomas Bohier's coat of arms since the room was restored in the 19th century. On the wall hangs the portrait of St. Joseph of Murillo. The eye-catcher in this room are the two wooden caryatid figures from the 17th century that frame the west window.
On the opposite side of the vestibule and thus above the Dianes de Poitiers room is the former bedroom of Catherine de Medici ( French: Chambre de Catherine de Medicis ). Like César's room, this room owes its current appearance to restoration work in the 19th century. It is furnished with furniture and wall hangings from the 16th century and has a Renaissance fireplace made of white Carrara marble. The most valuable painting in this room is Correggio's teaching of love as an oil-on-wood version. The canvas version of this painting is in the National Gallery of London .
A door leads from Katharina's bedroom to the cabinet extension. Above the Green Cabinet on the ground floor is the Cabinet of Prints ( French Cabinet d'Estampes ), in which a collection of drawings and engravings can be seen. They all have the castle as their motive.
Next to Katharina's bedroom is the room of the five queens ( French Chambre des cinq reines ), whose name is supposed to remind of Elisabeth of Valois , Margaret of Valois , Maria Stuart, Elisabeth of Austria and Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont. Their coats of arms can be found in the coffered ceiling from the 16th century. Tapestries from the same period hang on the walls as well as paintings by Rubens and Nicolas Mignard, among others.
Attic
In addition to the vestibule of the attic, whose unusually shaped beamed ceiling has come into its own since the restoration in the 19th century, there is only one room of interest on this floor: the so-called Louises de Lorraine bedroom ( French: Chambre de Louise de Lorraine ). The room is not the original room because it was located in a part of the castle that no longer exists today. However, the room is equipped with the contemporary paneling of Louise, which the king widow after the death of her husband Henry III. had posted in her bedroom to express her grief. The black panels are painted with white motifs such as thorn tendrils, widow's cords and bones, while the furniture has a fabric covering made of black damask .
Basement
In the two hollow pillars of the Logis ' are the economic areas of the castle. The first room in the basement can be reached via a narrow staircase at the southeast end of the ground floor vestibule: the so-called sideboard ( French office ). The room has a cross-vaulted ceiling and is equipped with the largest fireplace in the entire castle. Right next to this there is an oven in the same wall. To the northeast, the servants' dining room is adjacent to the sideboard , while a pantry adjoins to the southwest. The room is also connected via a door to the butcher's shop ( French Boucherie ), which still has all the utensils for the professional slaughter and cutting of an animal.
A narrow bridge leads from the sideboard to the second foundation pillar in which the actual kitchen is located. Although it still has its large fireplace with skewers from the Renaissance period, it was equipped with modern equipment at the beginning of the 20th century to meet the supply needs of the hospital that was set up in the gallery during the First World War . From the bridge, a boat landing stage is visible on the second pillar. Traders who supplied the castle with food and other necessities in earlier times could dock their boats there very close to the economic areas without having to accept long delivery routes by land.
gallery
The central vestibule of the first floor is connected to the south-east by the 60-meter-long and six-meter-wide gallery, which is supported by an arched bridge over the Cher. Because it was added later to the logis , it destroyed the architectural symmetry of the entire ensemble, because it did not join at the level of the symmetrical central axis of the main building, but was shifted slightly to the south. Your interior is kept very simple. It has a floor covered with black and white tiles made of slate and tuff and a beamed ceiling. Between the nine windows on both sides there are niches in which plants used to stand, but statues, as well as wall decorations in the form of medallions from the 18th century. There are large chimneys on the two narrow front sides of the gallery, of which the one at the southern end has no function. It merely frames an exit that leads over a drawbridge to the left bank of the Cher.
Gardens and park
Chenonceau Castle has around 80 hectares of gardens and park areas, which are spread over two renaissance gardens in the Italian style and a large, almost exclusively forested park.
In order to protect the two gardens from flooding at Cherhochwasser, they were laid out on walled terraces. In spring and summer they are planted with new flowers grown in the castle's own nursery. Around 60,000 to 64,000 plants are required for this every year.
Dianes de Poitiers garden
To the northeast of the Logis is the rectangular, more than 12,000 m² terrace with the Dianes de Poitiers garden . It can be entered via a stone bridge from the lawn ground floor. At the entrance to the garden is the former chancellery ( French Chancellerie ) from the 16th century, which also has a boat mooring.
A roundabout forms the center of the garden . In the middle there is a water fountain whose jet is six meters high. The French architect Jacques I. Androuet du Cerceau described this extraordinary construction in 1576 in the first volume of his engraving Les plus excellents Bastiments de France . At the time it was unique in France. From the central roundabout, eight straight paths radiate out to the corners and edges of the terrace, dividing the area into eight parterres planted with lawns.
In addition to flowers and ornamental trees such as boxwood , oleander and laurel trees as well as European yew and hibiscus , fruit trees and hazelnut bushes can be found in the garden of Dianes de Poitiers .
Catherine de Medici's garden
The garden of Catherine de Medici is the younger and smaller of the two castle gardens of Chenonceau. It has an almost trapezoidal floor plan. In the middle is a circular, low water basin with a diameter of 15 meters. Four straight paths lead from this and divide the garden in this way into four unequal parterres. On its north-west and south-west side, the garden is surrounded by the old trees of the large castle park.
Castle park and green garden
The buildings and gardens of Chenonceau are surrounded by a 70 hectare park, the majority of which is forest. It stretches both north and south of the Cher and in the Middle Ages already made up a large part of the domain belonging to the castle at that time.
In the part of the park that is to the east of the long access avenue, there is a maze of 2000 yew trees reconstructed according to original plans from the time of Catherine de Medici . In the immediate vicinity and provides the eight caryatides and atlases, the former on the north facade of the logis ' were installed.
The so-called Green Garden ( French Jardin Vert ) connects to the northwest side of the garden of Catherine de Medici . It is bordered on its east side by the former farm buildings and on the north by the orangery. The simple garden, designed according to Bernard Palissy's designs, consists of a large lawn, which is planted with trees and bushes - including Japanese kerries and spice bushes - and decorated with sculptures.
Todays use
Chenonceau Castle is now home to two museums and an art gallery. The first museum is the Logis with numerous paintings by old masters as well as furniture and tapestries from the 15th to 17th centuries. In one part of the Bâtiment de Dômes there has also been a wax museum since June 2000 called the Galerie des Dames . There 15 significant events with important people in the castle's history are depicted as scenes. All figures wear clothes that were made according to original documents and tailored from fabrics that were available in terms of material and processing during the lifetime of the real people.
On the first floor of the gallery above the Cher, exhibitions of contemporary art have been shown regularly since 1979 during the summer months. Among the exhibitors were artists such as Bernard Buffet , Miquel Barceló and Zao Wou-Ki .
The orangery building can be rented for celebrations and receptions, while the former horse stables are now a self-service restaurant for castle visitors.
As with many other castles in the Loire, Chenonceau Castle hosts an event called Son et Lumière , a light and sound show, on summer evenings after dark . To music by Arcangelo Corelli , the buildings and gardens are illuminated with spotlights and bathed in colorful light.
literature
- Jacques Androuet du Cerceau: Les plus excellents bastiments de France. Volume 2. L'Aventurine, Paris 1995, ISBN 2-84190-011-8 , doi: 10.11588 / diglit.1562 .
- Eugène Aubry-Vitet: Chenonceau. In: Revue des deux mondes. Volume 37, No. 69, Paris 1867, pp. 851–881 ( digitized version ).
- Jean-Pierre Babelon: Châteaux de France au siècle de la Renaissance . Flammarion, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-08-012062-X , pp. 106-107, 119-123, 500-501, 585-586, 598-602 .
- Jean-Luc Beaumont: Chronology of the châteaux de France. Pays de la Loire et Center. TSH, Le Cannet 2004, ISBN 2-907854-29-1 .
- Philip Jodidio (Red.): Chenonceau. Société française de promotion artistique, Paris 2001.
- Wilfried Hansmann : The Loire Valley. Castles, churches and cities in the «Garden of France». 4th edition. DuMont, Cologne 2011, ISBN 978-3-7701-6614-5 , pp. 143–152 (excerpts from Google Books ).
- Wiebke Krabbe (transl.): The castles of the Loire. Komet, Frechen 2001, ISBN 3-89836-200-0 , pp. 44-49.
- Herbert Kreft, Josef Müller-Marein, Helmut Domke: Jardin de la France. Castles on the Loire. CW Niemeyer, Hameln 1967, pp. 178-179.
- Jules Loiseleur: Les résidences royales de la Loire. E. Dentu, Paris 1863, pp. 295-362 ( digitized version ).
- Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos, Robert Polidori : Castles in the Loire Valley . Könemann, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-89508-597-9 , p. 162-169 .
- Georges Poisson : Castles of the Loire. Goldmann, Munich 1964, pp. 87-93.
- René Polette: Lovable Loire castles. Morstadt, Kehl 1996, ISBN 3-88571-266-0 , pp. 43-46.
- Werner Rau: Travel mobile. Loire Valley. Rau Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-926145-27-7 , pp. 99-103.
- Christoph Seeberger, Hermann Schreiber: The castles of the Loire. See & experience. Südwest, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-517-01348-X , pp. 136-140.
- Janine and Pierre Soisson: The Loire Castles. Parkland, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-88059-186-5 , pp. 37-43.
- Françoise Vibert-Guigue (Ed.): Center, châteaux de la Loire. Hachette, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-01-015564-5 , pp. 353-356.
- Bertrand du Vignaud: Monuments de France. Chêne, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-85108-694-4 , pp. 170-175.
- Castles on the Loire. Michelin, Landau-Mörlheim 2005, ISBN 2-06-711591-X , pp. 161-163.
Web links
- Castle website (French, English, Spanish)
- Photos from Base Mémoire
- Interactive floor plan and building plan (French, QuickTime or Flash required)
- Chenonceau Castle as a 3D model in SketchUp's 3D warehouse
Footnotes
- ↑ Vieilles pierres recherchent visiteurs on artaujourdhui.info , accessed on January 7, 2020.
- ↑ Janine and Pierre Soisson: The castles of the Loire. 1981, p. 37.
- ↑ a b c Wiebke Krabbe: The castles of the Loire. 2001, p. 44.
- ^ Eugène Aubry-Vitet: Chenonceau. 1867, p. 856.
- ^ A b Jean-Luc Beaumont: Chronology of the châteaux de France. Pays de la Loire et Center. 2004, no p.
- ^ Eugène Aubry-Vitet: Chenonceau. 1867, p. 878.
- ^ Bernhard Schneidewind: The castles of the Loire. The signpost through the garden of France. Ullstein, Frankfurt / M., Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-550-06850-6 , p. 84.
- ↑ Loire Castle Chenonceau threatened by drought on orf.at , accessed January 7, 2020.
- ↑ Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos: Castles in the Loire Valley. 1997, p. 162.
- ^ Jean-Pierre Babelon: Châteaux de France au siècle de la Renaissance. 1989, p. 120. Other publications mention 1521 or 1523.
- ↑ See: Jean-Pierr Babelon: Châteaux de France au siècle de la Renaissance. 1989, pp. 500-501.
- ↑ Philippe Jodidio: Chenonceau. 2001, p. 20.
- ↑ Philippe Jodidio: Chenonceau. 2001, p. 40.
- ↑ Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos: Castles in the Loire Valley. 1997, p. 166.
- ^ Jean Guillaume is the author of the article Un joyau de pierre in P. Jodidio: Chenonceau , pp. 28–43.
- ^ Jean-Pierre Babelon: Châteaux de France au siècle de la Renaissance. 1989, p. 585.
- ↑ John Murray (Ed.): A handbook for travelers in France .: being a guide to Normandy, Brittany, the rivers Seine, Loire, Rhône and Garonne, the French Alps, Dauphiné, Provence and the Pyrénées… . 5th edition. J. Murray, London 1854, p. 185 ( digitized version ).
- ^ Three Châteaux. In: The Lotus Magazine. Volume 8, No. 8, May 1914, p. 540.
- ↑ Georges Poisson: Castles of the Loire. 1964, p. 87.
- ↑ Quoted from Wilfried Hansmann: The Loire Valley. 2011, p. 149. The sentence can also be translated as “When it is finished, I will be remembered”.
- ↑ Georges Poisson: Castles of the Loire. 1964, p. 93.
- ↑ Philippe Jodidio: Chenonceau. 2001, p. 2.
- ↑ Axel M. Moser, Thorsten Droste: The castles of the Loire. Bucher, Munich and Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-7658-0648-X , p. 144.
- ↑ Christoph Seeberger, Hermann Schreiber: The locks of the Loire. See & experience. 1996, p. 138.
- ↑ a b Castles on the Loire. 2005, p. 163.
- ↑ Philippe Jodidio: Chenonceau. 2001, p. 12.
- ↑ Philippe Jodidio: Chenonceau. 2001, p. 34.
- ↑ Wiebke Krabbe: The castles of the Loire. 2001, p. 48.
- ↑ Philippe Jodidio: Chenonceau. 2001, p. 56.
- ↑ a b chenonceau.com ( Memento from April 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 47 ° 19 ′ 28.5 " N , 1 ° 4 ′ 13.5" E
