Gien Castle

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Gien Castle overlooks the city on the right bank of the Loire

The castle Gien is a French castle in Gien in the Loiret , Region Center-Val de Loire . As one of the first castles in the Loire to emerge from a hunting lodge , it stands on a rocky ridge on the right bank of the Loire and dominates the image of the city, which was a popular hunting ground on the edge of the game-rich Sologne in the Middle Ages .

The complex has been under monument protection as Monument historique since 1840 . Architectural historians consider it to be one of the best examples of the French Renaissance on the Loire, along with Amboise Castle , which is not yet influenced by Italy.

description

The southern corner tower with its diamond-shaped pattern in the masonry

The palace is an elongated, two-winged building in the style of the French Renaissance, with a two-story south wing and a short, three-story east wing, the angle of which in the palace courtyard is particularly emphasized by a round tower . The Gothic style of the flamboyant can still be seen in the architecture , but at the same time the renaissance is heralded by three polygonal stair towers on the courtyard side and a gallery in the south wing. On the outside facing the Loire, a square tower with a flat pyramid roof - the south tower from the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century , also known as the tower of Charlemagne (known as Tour Charlemagne in French ) - is in front of the castle, as well as a terrace . This was reconstructed according to medieval plans and is connected to the city center of Gien via several stairs. The building complex has roofs covered with slate shingles. To the northwest of the castle building stands the former collegiate church of Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc, which was founded by Anne de Beaujeu in the 15th century, on the same rock plateau .

Compared to other hunting lodges and other castles in the Loire, the architecture of the Gien castle looks rather modest. The only eye-catching adornments are the window and door frames made of light ashlar ashlar as well as the courtyard-side, made of black glazed bricks, embedded in the otherwise red brick walls, which are unique in France. For example, they have the shape of a triangle, a chessboard or a six-pointed star, which may have a reference to Masonic traditions. The round tower on the south corner of the castle also has a diamond- shaped pattern due to the different colored bricks . It is closed by a cone helmet with a crowning lantern .

As a result of several interior redesigns, little of the original interior has been preserved in Gien Castle. Including Particularly noteworthy is a large hall in the south wing with an impressive beams of chestnut wood .

history

Gien Castle was the center of the county of the same name and was built on the foundations of an older hunting residence from the time of Charlemagne . After Anne de Beaujeu acquired the county of Gien in 1481 after her marriage to Pierre II. De Bourbon , seigneur de Beaujeu , from her father Louis XI. She had the castle built by Johann Ohnefurcht at that time replaced by a new building from 1494 to 1500, which had become necessary because the complex was badly affected by Robert Knolles ' troops in the Hundred Years War in 1378 .

After Anne's death, the facility initially remained in the possession of the House of Bourbon until Francis I took over all the goods belonging to Connectable Charles III. de Bourbon-Montpensier because of his betrayal of the crown in 1523. Gien and his castle were added to the crown domain . In the following years, the building housed many important figures in French history, including the kings Henry II , Charles IX. and Heinrich III. as well as Catherine de Medici . At the end of March 1652, the regent Anna of Austria sought refuge there from the Fronde together with her underage son Louis XIV and her minister Cardinal Jules Mazarin . The court only left the castle after the royal troops had won the Battle of Bléneau on April 6 of the same year against the insurgents and moved on to Saint-Germain-en-Laye .

In the course of the French Revolution , the county of Gien was dissolved and the palace complex became the property of the Loiret department in 1823. During the First Empire , the building complex served as the seat of the sub-prefecture , the court and at the same time as a prison. In 1869 it underwent a restoration during the Second Empire .

On June 11, 1940, Gien was badly damaged in an attack by German troops during the Second World War . 80 percent of the city fell victim to the acts of war, only the castle survived the bombardment almost unscathed.

Now used as a museum

The painting Wild Boar Hunt by Jean-Baptiste Oudry can be seen in the museum

Since 1952 the castle has housed the largest hunting museum in France, the Musée International de la Chasse founded by Pierre-Louis Duchartre . In 15 rooms it presents over 3000 exhibits on all types of hunting that were and are common in France - including pickling , drive , stalking and shooting - as well as their history and development. The exhibits include an extensive collection of hunting weapons, including a crossbow from the 15th century and arquebuses from the 16th century. There are also tapestries based on patterns by Laurent Guyot , engravings , lithographs and faiences on the subject of hunting.

In the great hall of the south wing around 80 earlier in are Compiègne Castle preserved sketches and paintings François Desportes ', court painter to Louis XIV., And works his successor Jean-Baptiste Oudry issued. In addition, there is the Claude Hettier de Boislambert's collection of 500 hunting trophies in the Salle Daghilhon-Pujol and a unique collection of buttons with hunting motifs.

literature

  • Susanne Girndt (Red.): Castles of the Loire. Bassermann, Niedernhausen 1996, ISBN 3-8094-0290-7 , pages 36-37.
  • Wilfried Hansmann : The Loire Valley. Castles, churches and cities in the «Garden of France». 2nd Edition. DuMont, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-7701-3555-5 , p. 39.
  • Jacques Levron, Fred Mayer: The most beautiful castles in the Loire. Silva-Verlag, Zurich 1977, p. 11.
  • Jules Loiseleur: Mémoire sur le château de Gien-sur-Loire. In: Mémoires de la Société d'agriculture, sciences, belles-lettres et arts d'Orléans. Volume 4. De Pagnerre, Orléans 1859, pp. 213-271 ( digitized version )
  • Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos, Robert Polidori : Castles in the Loire Valley . Könemann, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-89508-597-9 , p. 184-185 .
  • Georges Poisson : Castles of the Loire. Goldmann, Munich 1964, pp. 13-15.
  • René Polette: Lovable Loire castles. Morstadt, Kehl 1996, ISBN 3-88571-266-0 , pp. 59-62.
  • Françoise Vibert-Guigue (Ed.): Center, châteaux de la Loire. Hachette, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-01-015564-5 , pp. 482-483.
  • Castles on the Loire. Michelin, Landau-Mörlheim 2005, ISBN 2-06-711591-X , pp. 199-200.

Web links

Commons : Schloss Gien  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ loiret.com , accessed January 22, 2020.
  2. ↑ Gien Castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French), accessed on January 22, 2020.
  3. ↑ a b c Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos: Castles in the Loire Valley. 1997, p. 185.
  4. ^ A b Françoise Vibert-Guigue: Center, châteaux de la Loire. 1991, p. 482.
  5. ↑ gien.fr ( Memento of July 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ jedecouvrelafrance.com ( Memento of December 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ^ A b Susanne Girndt: Castles of the Loire. 1996, p. 35.
  8. ^ Francis Miltoun: Castles and Chateaux of Old Touraine and the Loire Country. Page & Company, Boston 1906, p. 319 ( digitized version ).
  9. ↑ Vanessa Yager (Ed.): Ouverts au public. Monuments historiques: chateaux et abbayes, parcs et jardins, sites industriels et archéologiques édifices du XXe siècle. Le guide du patrimoine en France. Monum, Edition du patrimoine, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-85822-760-8 , p. 235.
  10. ↑ a b frenchwayoflife.net ( Memento from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ a b Werner Rau: Mobile travel. Loire Valley. Rau Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-926145-27-7 , p. 30.
  12. ↑ Castles on the Loire. 2005, p. 199.
  13. ↑ coeur-de-france.com ( Memento from August 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ↑ Georges Poisson: Castles of the Loire. 1964, p. 14.
  15. ↑ René Polette: Lovable Loire castles. 1996, p. 62.

Coordinates: 47 ° 41 ′ 5 "  N , 2 ° 37 ′ 54.7"  E