Montreuil-Bellay Castle
The Château de Montreuil-Bellay is located in the French city of Montreuil-Bellay on the river Thouet in the department of Maine-et-Loire . Even the Romans appreciated the strategic location on the ridge and founded an oppidum here .
Medieval foundation
Like many other Loire castles, Montreuil-Bellay goes back to a castle built in the 11th century by Fulco Nerra , Count of Anjou. Around 1025 he gave the castle to his vassal Giraud Berlay (also known as Bellay). Agnes, the last daughter of the Bellay family, married Guillaume de Melun in 1217 . This dynasty would reside in Montreuil for two centuries.
The Hundred Years War brought looting, famine and robbery, and devastated the country. Guillaume IV. De Melun, Count of Tancarville, head stableman of France and treasurer, began building the city's ramparts. He had a high, massive wall with 13 towers and a strongly fortified entrance building built around the castle. A narrow portal flanked by mighty round towers and originally secured by a barbican and drawbridge was the only access. Trenches, towers and entrance building convey the impressive image of a castle from the Middle Ages from the outside .
Renaissance is arriving
Marguerite de Melun, the only daughter of Guillaume IV. De Melun-Tancarville, who was killed in the middle of the Hundred Years War, married Jacques II. D'Harcourt in 1417. This family gave the complex its present-day character in the period up to 1488, when the family died out, primarily through the construction of the New Palace . Their alterations are characteristic of the renaissance of the second half of the 15th century, which was still completely influenced by the Gothic . Raised high, the New Palace dominates the river valley with its representative large stair tower.
The dilapidated chapel of the castle had to give way to an elegant collegiate church. The canons were housed in a closed ensemble of four similar mansions built especially for them. As a special feature of Montreuil-Bellay Castle, there are bathing rooms in this residential wing that are decorated with the Harcourt coat of arms. The enlargement of the old castle to today's small castle falls at the same time. Finally, the old kitchen of the fortress was expanded.
Eventful modern times
During the French Wars of Religion , the town of Montreuil-Bellay was robbed and burned down, while the fortress suffered little damage. After that, the castle changed hands several times; by marriage she also came to the Cossé-Brissac family . During the French Revolution, the castle served as a prison for women from royalist circles.
In 1822 the businessman Adrien Niveleau from Saumur bought the property in order to divide it up and rent it out. In 1860, Niveleau's daughter took over the property and began the large-scale restoration of the complex, which also included the renovation of some rooms. The current owners are descendants of her husband's nephew.
literature
- Wilfried Hansmann : The Loire Valley. Castles, churches and cities in the «Garden of France» . 2nd Edition. DuMont, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-7701-3555-5 , pp. 201-203 ( excerpts online ).
- Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos, Robert Polidori : Castles in the Loire Valley . Könemann, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-89508-597-9 , p. 246 .
- Castles and cities of the Loire . Valoire-Estel publishing house, Florence 2006, ISBN 88-476-1863-0 , p. 139.
Web links
- Website of the Montreuil-Bellay Castle (French and English)
Coordinates: 47 ° 7 ′ 56.8 " N , 0 ° 9 ′ 31.4" W.