Les Milandes castle
The Château des Milandes is located in a terraced park on the left bank of the Dordogne in the French community Castelnaud-la-Chapelle in the Dordogne .
history
The castle was built in 1489 by François de Caumont, Count of Castelnaud, on the initiative of his wife Claude de Cardaillac. He also owned the fortresses Castelnaud and Berbiguières, between which the castle was situated. The castle remained the main residence of this family until 1535. It was expropriated in the French Revolution . It then passed through several hands, but was not significantly changed.
In 1870 the industrialist Charles Claverie bought the castle, which originally consisted of a main building and a square tower. He completely renovated and rebuilt the building; Among other things, two additional towers and another main building were built. A new wine cellar was also built. In 1908 Charles Claverie commissioned the garden architect Jules Vacherot to redesign the garden, which was first laid out in the 15th century.
Gothic elements on the arcades of the terraces and the allegorical figures on the balustrades create a pleasant mixture with the style elements of the Renaissance . The residential wing is framed by round and square towers with stair turrets. Gable windows with richly decorated frontispieces and stone window crosses adorn the roof.
Josephine Baker
In 1938 the castle was first rented by Josephine Baker and then bought in 1947. She arranged for electricity and water connections in the castle and in the neighboring village of Milandes, which became the first village in the Périgord to offer these amenities. Josephine Baker also commissioned a complete renovation of the interior.
Josephine Baker volunteered for service as the Red Cross nurse at Gare du Nord in Paris during World War II . She raised money for De Gaulle's Free France and secretly worked as a courier for the Resistance and the secret service . She even hid Jewish refugees in Les Milandes, which was in the unoccupied zone for some time. After obtaining her pilot's license, she ended the war with the rank of lieutenant in the French army and was inducted into the Legion of Honor . In France she is still revered today as an artist and heroine.
From 1950 onwards, with a papal blessing , she adopted ten boys and two girls from orphanages and poor houses on five continents. The castle served as a home for her "rainbow family".
The castle can be visited.
literature
- Jean-Luc Aubarbier, Michel Binet: Beloved Perigord. Ouest-France, Rennes 1990, ISBN 2-7373-0299-4 , p. 41.
Web links
- Castle website (French, English)
- Information about Castle (English)
- Les Milandes castle as a 3D model in SketchUp's 3D warehouse
Individual evidence
- ↑ Les Milandes: The Renaissance of a French Garden at nouvelle-aquitaine-tourisme.com, accessed on August 24, 2020
Coordinates: 44 ° 49 ′ 25 ″ N , 1 ° 6 ′ 48.5 ″ E