Castles and Chateaux of Old BurgundyMansfield, M. F. (Milburg Francisco)
History
Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy
Mansfield, M. F. (Milburg Francisco)
Burgundy (France) -- Description and travel; Castles -- France -- Burgundy
After a brilliant career of centuries the ancient residence of the
Comtes de Genevois, and the Princes de Savoie-Nemours who came after,
has become a barracks for a battalion of Chasseurs Alpins. Fortunately
for the æsthetic proprieties, it has lost nothing of its seigneurial
aspect of old as have so many of its contemporaries when put to a
similar use.
Really, Annecy's chateau, its well lined walls, its ramparts and towers,
and above all, its situation, close to the water's edge, where the
ensemble of its fabric mingles so well with artistically disposed
foreground, has an appeal possessed by but few structures of its class.
If one would see the town and lake of Annecy at their best they should
be viewed of a September afternoon, when the oblique rays of the autumn
sun first begin to gild the heavy square towers of the ancient chateau
of the Ducs de Nemours. Behind rise the roofs and spires of the town set
off with the reddish golden leaves of the chestnuts of La Puya. All is a
blend of the warm colouring of the southland with the sterner, more
angular outlines of the north. The contrasting effect is to be remarked.
To the left, regarding the town from the water's edge, or better yet
from a boat upon the lake, rises the Villa de la Tour, where died Eugene
Sue; and farther away the Grange du Hameau de Chavoires, where lingered
for a time Jean Jacques Rousseau. All around, through the chestnut
woods, are scattered glistening _villas_ and _manoirs_ and _granges_,
with, away off in the distance, the towering walls of the feudal Chateau
de Saint Bernard.
Another marvellous silhouette to be had from the bosom of the lake is
midway along the western shore, where the ramparts of Tournette and the
crenelated walls of the Dents du Lanfont and Charbonne are, after
midday, lighted up as with yellow fire. The brown and yellow roof and
façade of an old Benedictine convent, now become a hotel, rise above the
verdure of the foreshore, and the whole is as tranquil as if the
twentieth century were yet to be born.
On the opposite shore of the lake is the Chateau de Duingt, with its
white towers piercing the sky in quite the idyllic manner.
The Chateau de Duingt is a pretentious country residence belonging to
the Genevois family which in the seventeenth century gave a bishop to
the neighbourhood, a bishop, it is true, who was excommunicated and
shorn of all his rights by the Comte de Savoie, Amadée V, but a bishop
nevertheless.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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