Saumur Castle
The Saumur castle stands in the same French city of Saumur between Nantes and Tours in the department of Maine-et-Loire on a plateau near the confluence of the Loire and Thouet .
The palace of Duke Ludwig I.
With Philip VI. As King of France, the Valois line came to the throne in 1328, and at the same time the Anjou was reunited with the crown. King Johann II raised it to a duchy and in 1356 transferred it to his second son, Ludwig . Duke Ludwig I endeavored to create a residence that could be compared with the luxurious buildings of his brothers, King Charles V and Jean , Duke of Berry , both lovers of art, architecture and chivalry. He chose Saumur for this and around 1370 had four wings reinforced with corner towers built around an inner courtyard on the strong substructures of a fortress built 140 years earlier.
A comparison of today's castle with the miniature of the castle on the September page from Duke Johann von Berry's book of hours , the Très Riches Heures , reveals the splendor of that time. Today, numerous structural elements such as the roofing and the ornamentation of the towers are missing. The roof zone over the battlements was lavishly designed: ducar windows , chimneys, crab-adorned gables , an abundance of lilies from the duke's coat of arms and gilded weathercocks . The gate building shown in the miniature has not been preserved, as is the kitchen building with its central pyramid to the left.
At the north tower, the gallery of the east wing, the staircase of honor above the courtyard opens its four floors with their decorative balconies, on which one can imagine the princes who watch theater performances or the arrival of important personalities from there. The niches of the loggias contain statues of the Duke of Anjou and his brothers, King Charles V, the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy, the Queen and the Duchesses. Another very beautiful double turn staircase climbs into the turret that flanks the west tower, one ramp leads to the watchtower, the other to the floors. In 1454 and 1472 the east tower was repaired and the stair tower on the east side of the courtyard and the square tower on the south-east facade were built.
Governor's seat under the French crown
After the death of Duke René II, the last Duke of Anjou, the duchy fell under Louis XI. in 1480 to the French crown forever. Saumur Castle became the seat of the governor and the garrison . Around 1600, after the end of the wars of religion , Saumur became a stronghold and security city of the Protestants. The city governor Duplessis-Mornay , who lived in the castle, had it fortified with star-shaped bastions. From this time the entire surrounding defensive system comes with bastions , lunettes , casemates and sentry boxes .
Decline, restoration, present condition
After Duplessis-Mornay was deposed in 1621, the castle began to fall into disrepair. In the following decades it was used to house prisoners of war, as a dungeon and as a warehouse. The north-west wing collapsed and was not rebuilt, only the two corner towers are left. Under Napoleon the building was used as a state prison, later as barracks and finally as an armory . Today the castle, acquired by the city of Saumur in 1906, houses the Musée des Arts decoratifs , a museum for furniture, decorations and tapestries, as well as the Musée de cheval , which shows the development of the art of riding and equestrian technique over the centuries. Saumur is indeed a town with a great equestrian tradition, famous for its riders and riding schools since the 16th century.
literature
- Chris Gravett: Atlas of Castles. The most beautiful castles and palaces . Tosa, Vienna 2001, p. 22, ISBN 3-85492-470-4 .
- 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. 204-207 ( online ).
- The castles on the Loire . Verlag Valoire-Estel, Blois 2006, ISBN 2-909575-73-X , p. 129.
Web links
- Detailed history of the castle (French)
- Saumur Castle as a 3D model in SketchUp's 3D warehouse
Coordinates: 47 ° 15 ′ 22 " N , 0 ° 4 ′ 21" W