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
The chief and most splendid apartment is the Salle des Gardes, to a
great extent restored, but typical of the best of fifteenth century
workmanship and appointments. Its chimney-piece, as splendid in general
effect as any to be seen in the Loire chateaux, is but a re-made affair,
but follows the best traditions and encloses moreover fragments of
fifteenth century sculptures which are authentically of that period. The
cornice of this majestic apartment bears the Chastellux arms and those
of their allied families, interwoven with the oft repeated inscription,
_Monréal à Sire de Chastellux_. In this same Salle des Gardes are hung a
pair of ancient Gobelins, and set into the floor is a dainty morsel of
an antique mosaic found nearby.
The modern billiard-room, also shown to the inquisitive, contains
portraits of the Chancelier d'Aguesseau and his wife, and its
fittings--aside from the green baize tables and their accessories--are
well carried out after the style of Louis XIII. Good taste, or bad, one
makes no comment, save to suggest that the billiard tables look out of
place.
In what the present dweller calls the Salon Rouge are portraits and
souvenirs of a military ancestor Comte César de Chastellux, who, judging
from his dress and cast of countenance, must have been a warrior bold of
the conventional type.
After the Salle des Gardes the Grand Salon is the most effective
apartment. Its wall and ceiling decorations are the same that were
completed in 1696, and incorporated therein are fourteen portraits of
the Sires and Comtes who one day lived and loved within these castle
walls. These portraits are reproductions of others which were destroyed
by the unchained devils of the French Revolution who made way with so
much valuable documentary evidence from which one might build up French
mediæval history anew. The village church contains several tombal
monuments of the Chastellux.
The Chateau de Montréal, or Mont-Royal, so closely allied with the
fortunes of the Chastellux, between Avallon and Chastellux, is built
high on a mamelon overlooking the Seruin, and is one of the most ancient
and curious places in Burgundy. The little town, of but five hundred
inhabitants, is built up mostly of the material which came from one of
the most ancient of the feudal chateaux of mid-France. This chateau was
originally a primitive fortress, once the residence of Queen Brunhaut,
the wife of the Roi d'Austrasie in 566. It was from this hill-top
residence that the name Montréal has been evolved.
The sparse population of the place were benefited by special privileges
from the earliest times and the _cité movenageuse_ itself was endowed
with many admirable examples of administrative and domestic
architecture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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