La Grange Fort Castle
The castle La Grange Fort ( French Château de la Grange Fort ), also written Grangefort , is a French castle in the Auvergnatian town of Les Pradeaux in the Puy-de-Dôme department . The neo-Gothic style complex is located on the eastern bank of the Allier about seven kilometers south-east of Issoire . Its roots can be found in a castle from the 14th century.
history
The castle La Grange Fort emerged in the Middle Ages from a tithe camp of the castle Nonette , which lies a little further south . This is also indicated by its name, because grange fort refers to a fortified barn. Nonette was part of the appanage of the Duke of Berry , Jean de Valois . The noble family Ambillon from Auvergna acquired part of the land including the barn around 1370 and had a castle built there. The first owner known by name was Jacques d'Ambillon. The lands acquired by his family were raised to an independent seigneurie , with which both the low and high jurisdiction as well as fishing and hunting rights were connected.
In 1445, the then castle owner sold the complex to Hugues de Pons for 2000 Goldécu . One of his grandsons, Gilbert de Pons, Seigneur von Tallende and Roquet, belonged to the retinue of Marshal Artus de Cossé, comte de Secondigny , and was responsible, among other things, for the fortress of Usson . During the Huguenot Wars, Nonette Castle was able to withstand a siege by troops of the Catholic League under his leadership . However, he could not prevent the league players from looting and burning down his castle La Grange Fort in 1592 under the command of the Duke of Nemours . However, the facility was rebuilt a short time later, during the reign of Henry IV of France .
During the French Revolution , the castle shared the fate of so many aristocratic residences: it was partially destroyed, only the foundations and part of the ground floor remained intact. After the owner Michel-Denis de Pons fled abroad from the turmoil of the revolution, the castle was confiscated in 1789 and declared national property to be auctioned off. The buyer was none other than the former lord of the castle Michel-Denis, who returned to France after his emigration . Through his brother Antoine de Pons , Bishop of Moulins , the castle came to his nephew Antoine-Arthur de Pons. Because he had no offspring, he sold the property to Marie-Victor de Matharel, the chief treasurer of Puy-de-Dôme. The new owner commissioned the well-known architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc to restore and convert the complex in the neo-Gothic style.
Today the castle is owned by Dutch private individuals who run a campsite on the property and offer overnight stays in some of the castle's rooms.
description
The castle is an almost square complex with a side length of about 50 meters. The corners are marked by four round towers connected by curtains , with the north and east towers also being corner towers of the Corps de Logis on the north-western side of the square. The traditional entrance was on the southeast side. The gate building there has an ogival gate passage, above which there is a thrower . In the past, the gate also had a portcullis . Today the entrance is on the southwest side of the palace complex. From there, the visitor arrives in a castle courtyard with a central roundabout . The two-story corps de logis of the castle is accessible from there. The rectangular building occupies the entire northwest side of the palace complex and has two short side wings. In the northern corner of the corps of the logis and the north wing rises the square keep with a crenellated wreath and machicolations . In its lower part is the chapel with rib vaults and neo-Gothic wall paintings showing biblical motifs. The latter come from Anatole Dauvergne and were made by him in 1860 during the restoration under Victor de Matharel. The painterly design of the stairwell was also made by this artist. It shows 70 coats of arms of the Grand Masters of the Order of Malta . Another art-historically important piece of equipment of the castle is a fireplace on the ground floor, which with its inscription reminds of the destruction of the previous complex in 1592 during the French Wars of Religion .
literature
- Gustave Eyriès: Les châteaux historiques de la France . Volume 1. Oudin Frères, Paris 1877, pp. 193-202.
- Honoré Vianne: Peintures murales exécutées, en 1860, also château de La Grangefort-sur-Allier par M. Anatole Dauvergne . In: Société française d'Archéologie (ed.): Bulletin monumental . 3rd series, volume 9. Derache, Paris 1863, pp. 435-436 ( online ).
Web links
- History of the castle on the website of the Pays de Sauxillanges municipal association (French)
- Castle website (German, English, French, Dutch)
- Photos from Base Mémoire
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c G. Eyriès: Les châteaux historiques de la France , p. 194.
- ↑ History of the castle on the website of the Pays de Sauxillanges municipal association ( Memento of the original from March 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 24, 2013.
- ↑ G. Eyriès: Les châteaux historiques de la France , p. 200.
- ↑ Ambroise Tardieu : L'Auvergne (Puy-de-Dôme). Guide complet illustré . Tardieu, Herment 1886, p. 234 ( online ).
- ↑ Information according to the online cadastral map for Les Pradeaux
- ↑ H. Vianne: Peintures murales exécutées, en 1860, also château de La Grangefort-sur-Allier par M. Anatole Dauvergne , p. 436.
Coordinates: 45 ° 30 ′ 33.3 " N , 3 ° 17 ′ 4.7" E