Médavy Castle

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Médavy Castle, view from the southwest

The Médavy Castle ( French Château de Médavy ) is a baroque castle complex on the northeastern edge of the Norman municipality of Médavy in the Orne department . It is located directly on the left bank of the Orne River , which feeds the moat .

The entire complex, including part of its palace garden, is under monument protection as a monument historique . Some areas of the palace were first entered in the French list of monuments on October 22, 1926, before the entire complex was placed under protection on July 7, 1989. It can be viewed daily in July and August, including the parquet flooring laid in a radial pattern in the main building's large salon , which is unique in its shape in France.

history

The beginnings

A first permanent house existed at the current location as early as the 11th century , which monitored the crossing over the Orne. Its first owner known by name was the governor of Alençon , Hugues de Médavy, who was mentioned in a document in 1113. In 1137 the house belonged to Robert de Médavy. The first fortified complex was destroyed between 1417 and 1449 in the Hundred Years War . What is certain is that it was replaced by a larger castle sometime before the 16th century . After that, the complex consisted of a square area surrounded by a circular wall and a moat , the four corners of which were guarded by massive round towers . Protected by the wall, a residential building, a keep and a castle chapel , which was also the burial place of the lords of the castle, stood within the area .

Middle Ages and Early Modern Times

Médavy Castle came to its family through the marriage of the heiress Marie Larçonneur, dame de Médavy, in 1424 to the governor of Argenton and cupbearer of the Duke of Alençon , Jean Rouxel. This was subsequently called Rouxel de Médavy and remained the owner of the facility for almost 300 years, the land ownership she increased through acquisitions. From the second half of the 16th century, the family rose to fame and honor through military deeds of their male members at the Paris court and knew how to increase influence and wealth through advantageous marriages. In 1588, Pierre de Médavy married Françoise de Hautemer, the daughter of the future French marshal Guillaume de Hautemer , Count of Grancey , after whose death the title of count passed to the Rouxel family. For the groom, King Henry III raised the seigneurie became a barony in 1596 .

17th century

Drawing of the castle from 1680

In 1626 the Saint James Tower ( French Tour Saint-Jacques ), one of the four mighty corner towers of the castle, collapsed, which had to be completely defended around 1630 at the order of the king - like all other non-royal fortifications in France . The keep of the complex, used as a powder magazine, was so badly damaged in an explosion that its unusable remains were laid down in 1642.

In 1651, Jacques Rouxel de Médavy rose to the highest military honors when Louis XIII. appointed him Marshal of France. Jacques had the remaining corner towers redesigned and given domed roofs , but overall Médavy was already neglected by its owners in favor of the other family seat, the Grancey Castle in Burgundy . In the 17th century, however, the castle was also connected to an event that became known far beyond the borders of the barony: Jacques' son François-Bénédict had fallen in love with a young girl from the Le Conte de Nonant family, but her parents refused theirs Consent to a marriage. In order to change her mind and to force her permission, François-Bénédict kidnapped his beloved and her mother, the Marquise de Nonant, and held them captive on Médavy. The girl's father then gathered a few faithful and wanted to besiege the castle . To resolve the conflict bloodlessly, the then governor of Normandy, Henri II. D'Orléans-Longueville , sent a mediator who was finally able to resolve the dispute. The two parties agreed that Mademoiselle de Nonant would initially be brought to a nearby monastery where a relative of François-Bénédicts was abbess . And although she could receive a visit from her admirer there at any time, the love between the two quickly cooled. In any case, the wedding never took place.

18th century

Jacques' grandson Jacques-Léonor Rouxel, comte de Grancey , followed in his grandfather's footsteps and was born in 1724 by Louis XV. appointed Marshal of France. As early as 1703 he had a new castle built on the old foundations in Médavy. However, this had not only the stylistic features of the classicist baroque influenced by François Mansart , but also outdated features of the Louis-treize style . As a souvenir of Jacques-Léonor's victory in the battle of Castiglione (1706) against Friedrich von Hessen-Kassel , the king gave him six cannons which the count had captured in the battle. He had two of them installed in his new castle and they stayed there until the French Revolution . 1722 collapsed with the Sankt-Cornelius-Turm ( French Tour Saint-Corneille ) another of the three remaining old corner towers. After the Marshal's death in 1725, his brother François continued some construction work until his death in 1728, but the construction costs in Médavy and those of the Grancey Castle had ruined the family. You in 1733 to 550,000 sold Castle Médavy  livres to the Duke Marie-Joseph d'Hostun, which it on June 27, 1754 to the rich financier and tax farmers ( French fermier général (also written Mauregard)) Pierre de Thiroux monregard resold. It was only under him as lord of the palace that palace gardens with a labyrinth and a Chinese pavilion were added. In addition, he had today's staircase designed in the castle and the construction of today's farm yard and a large pigeon tower west of the castle. For Thiroux de Monregard, the barony was elevated to a county in 1769. The work was not yet finished when the French Revolution broke out in 1789 and the lord of the castle emigrated abroad . He died in exile in Rastatt in 1792 . His son Charles, who remained in France, had the stone coats of arms removed from the castle in order to protect the complex from damage by angry revolutionaries. But he no longer lived in the castle himself. This was cleared out in 1794 and the furniture was sold. It then stood empty for ten years.

19th and 20th centuries

The main castle in a photograph by Henri Magron, late 19th century

Charles Thiroux de Monregard ran into heavy debts and had to sell Médavy Castle in 1812 at the insistence of his creditors. It remained unused until 1820, when it was acquired by Madame Labbey de La Roque that year. She had the castle repaired and lived there until her death in 1855. Heir was her nephew François de Tertu, who bequeathed it to his daughter and her husband, Count Maussion, when he died. The countess had the building repaired again in 1867. The exact structural development of the castle during the 19th century remains unclear. It is known that a fire destroyed the north-western wing and the pavilion building. A smaller wing was built to replace it. As a result of the lack of structural maintenance, the group of horse sculptures on the central risalit of the south-east wing had to be removed. Its ailing stone was already crumbling and threatening to fall. The sculpture was then replaced by the current balustrade .

When Countess Maussion died in 1896, 325  hectares of land belonged to the castle. Her son Jean succeeded her as the castle owner. His heirs sold the plant in 1919 to the financier and industrialist Henri de Peyerimhoff de Fontenelle, member of the Institut français and president of the Comité Central des Houillères de France , a lobby group that represented the interests of the owners of coal mines. Although he only lived in the castle for a time, he had the building restored and the castle archive fully accessible. During the Second World War , the buildings miraculously remained intact during the Allied landings in Normandy and in July 1944 served as the headquarters of Colonel Paul de Langlade . The heirs of Henri de Peyerimhoff had the property auctioned in several parts after his death in 1953. The main building of the palace complex went to General Jacques-Pierre-Louis de Grancey, a direct descendant of the builder, who used it as a holiday home. He collected mementos from Marshal Jacques-Léonor Rouxel de Médavy in the castle. After the general's death in 1973, his widow sold the castle to Maurice Rey and his wife, who had owned the farmyard since 1968 and who farmed horses there. The couple subjected the main building to a comprehensive restoration, during which the interiors, which had been remodeled several times over the course of history, were returned to their original state. The castle then opened to visitors for the first time in the summer of 1976.

Todays use

Maurice Rey died in 2004 as a result of a riding accident, and his widow sold the 133 hectare property to the current owners, the Charon couple, that same year. Since 2005, the two have made it their task to restore the parts that have not yet been repaired. The facades and the roof have already been restored.

The palace complex is open every day in July and August and on the French Heritage Open Day ( French Journée du Patrimoine ). Visiting the outdoor facilities, the castle chapel in the Sankt-Johann-Turm ( French Tour Saint-Jean ) and the pigeon tower, in which African art can be seen, is free. The main castle is now an interior museum that can be visited as part of guided tours. A guided visit to the Saint Peter Tower ( French Tour Saint-Pierre ) is also possible on request . There the castle owner shows contemporary art of the 21st century.

description

The two-part palace complex consists of an 18th century farm yard and the main palace to the east. The service yard is a closed four-wing complex, the wings of which enclose an approximately square inner courtyard. A massive, round pigeon tower with a conical roof stands near the southern corner . The inside of its wall is criss-crossed with hundreds of nesting holes. The number of them depends on the size of the domain at the time: the lord of the castle was allowed one nesting hole per 5000 square meters of land.

Southwest entrance facade of the main building

The ground plan of the area around the main building still reflects the shape of the medieval defense system: a slightly trapezoidal system with four round towers at the corners, surrounded on three sides by a water supply fed by the Orne and limited on the north side by the river itself was. The two southern of the four brick towers are still standing. They are called Sankt-Johann-Turm and Sankt-Peter-Turm . Both got their current appearance with domed roof and crowning, open lantern in the 17th century. On the upper floor of the Sankt-Johann-Tower is the castle chapel with a wooden retable from the 18th century and some statues made of terracotta and wood. The castle archive with around 3000 documents from the 12th to 19th centuries is housed in its attic. The Sankt-Peter-Turm is now used by the castle owners for residential purposes. However, it can be viewed on request. The former ring wall of the complex, which connected the corner towers, was laid down in the first half of the 17th century. In their place there is now a low stone balustrade that surrounds the area.

The main castle consists of an elongated, seven-axis building flanked by two pavilions with mansard roofs . The three central axes lie in a central projection with a crowning balustrade. Although it dates from the beginning of the 18th century, the building with its corner blocks and door and window frames made of house blocks still shows Louis-Treize style elements. The north-western pavilion is followed by a short, single-storey extension with two axes. It was built in the 19th century to replace a second wing of the castle that was destroyed by fire. All roofs of the building have a slate covering . The north-west pavilion stands at the point where the keep of the previous castle used to be. Its segmented arched gable shows - like the gable of the southeast pavilion - the remains of coats of arms that were chopped off during the French Revolution.

The large salon with its radial parquet in a photograph by Gustave William Lemaire

Today, the interior is as it was in the 18th century. The large staircase has a ceiling painting that extols the skills of the client, Marshal Jacques-Léonor de Médavy. The staircase is equipped with a wrought iron railing , which is a modern replacement for the historical predecessor that has disappeared. The salons are furnished with elegant furniture from the 18th century. On the walls there are numerous paintings with portraits of members of the owner families, including Countess Thiroux de Monregard by Louis-Michel van Loo . In addition, tapestries and books of hours from the 15th and 16th centuries can be seen. A collection of old maps, atlases and globes are presented to visitors in three of the castle rooms . The exhibits can be traced back to a passion of today's lord of the castle and date from the 16th to 18th centuries. The palace's large salon also has furnishings that are unique in France: its parquet flooring is laid in a radial pattern and pays homage to Louis XIV, the Sun King .

literature

  • Louis Duval: Le château de Médavy. In: P. Barret et al .: La Normandie monumentale et pittoresque, Orne. Part 2. Lemale & Cie., Havre 1897, pp. 35-36 ( digitized ).
  • Jean-Michel Boissier (Red.): Les châteaux du siècle de Louis XIV. Atlas, [Évreux] 2008, ISBN 978-2-7312-4158-7 , pp. 101-104.
  • Noël Broëlec: La Normandie. Châteaux et Demeures. Minerva, Geneva 1995, ISBN 2-83-070306-6 , p. 61.
  • Claude Frégnac: Merveilles des châteaux de Normandie. Hachette, Paris 1966, pp. 92-97.
  • Henri de Peyerimhoff de Fontenelle: Les Médavy Grancey et le château de Médavy. Chicken Malassis, Alençon 1952.
  • Philippe Seydoux: Châteaux du Perche et du Bocage Normand. Éditions de la Morande, Paris 1992, ISBN 2-902091-15-X , pp. 63-64.

Web links

Commons : Médavy Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Entry of the castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  2. ↑ Entry of the palace garden in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  3. ↑ a b c d Martin Bernard: Le château de Médavy joue la carte du XVIIIe. In: Ouest-France . Edition of August 18, 2015 ( online ).
  4. ↑ Noël Broëlec: La Normandie. Châteaux et Demeures. 1995, p. 61.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i history on the castle website , accessed November 30, 2018.
  6. ↑ Jean-Michel Boissier (Red.): Les châteaux du siècle de Louis XIV. 2008, p. 102.
  7. ^ A b c Philippe Seydoux: Châteaux du Perche et du Bocage Normand. 1992, p. 63.
  8. ↑ a b c d e Jean-Michel Boissier (Red.): Les châteaux du siècle de Louis XIV. 2008, p. 103.
  9. ^ A b Claude Frégnac: Merveilles des châteaux de Normandie. 1966, p. 93.
  10. ↑ a b Louis Duval: Le château de Médavy. In: P. Barret et al .: La Normandie monumentale et pittoresque, Orne, part 2. 1897, p. 35.
  11. ↑ a b c d e Jean-Michel Boissier (Red.): Les châteaux du siècle de Louis XIV. 2008, p. 104.
  12. ^ Claude Frégnac: Merveilles des châteaux de Normandie. 1966, p. 95.
  13. ^ Philippe Seydoux: Châteaux du Perche et du Bocage Normand. 1992, p. 64.
  14. ↑ Homepage of the palace complex , accessed on December 6, 2018.

Coordinates: 48 ° 40 ′ 43.9 "  N , 0 ° 5 ′ 53.4"  E