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 suggestion of the ample inner court is still there, and the
foundations of still two other towers, as well as various ruined walls.
A neighbouring edifice, the buildings formerly occupied by the Canons of
Saint Vorles, is inexplicably intermingled with the ruins of the chateau
in a way that makes it difficult to tell where one leaves off and the
other begins. The _chevet_ of the Eglise de Saint Vorles and its
churchyard also intermingle with the confines of the chateau in an
extraordinary manner. To say the least, the juxtaposition of things
secular and ecclesiastic is the least bit incongruous.
Châtillon's Tour de Gissey, practically an accessory to the chateau, is
a noble work whose well-preserved existence is due entirely to the
solidity of its construction. Its lower ranges are of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, but its upper gallery and its row of _meurtrières_
were due to the military engineers of Henri IV. who sought to make it
the better serve the purpose of their royal master.
Within this tower are two fine apartments, of which the upper, known as
the Salle des Gardes, was, before the Revolution, the sepulchre of
certain wealthy neighbouring families.
Within the limits of the plot which surrounds the chateau, the church
and the tower, is the tomb of Maréchal Marmont, Duc de Raguse.
The present edifice at Châtillon occupied by the Sous-Préfecture was
built, as a plaque on the wall indicates, by Madame la Comtesse de
Langeac in 1765. It is a fine example of the architecture of the period
which, in spite of glaring inconsistencies to be noted once and again,
is unquestionably most effective, and suggests that after all the
chateau filled its purpose well as a great town house of a wealthy
noble. The building plays a public part to-day, and if it serves its
present purpose half as well as its former, no one should complain.
Within this really superb and palatial structure is still to be seen the
magnificent stairway of forged iron of the period of Louis XVI. Besides
this are various apartments with finely sculptured wooden panels and
rafters of the same epoch, all of which accessories were brought
thither from the nearby Chateau de Courcelles-les-Ranges, demolished
during the Revolution.
The Chateau de Marmont at Châtillon was formerly the princely residence
of the Maréchal de Marmont, rebuilt from the fifteenth century chatelet
occupied by the Sires de Rochefort, who were simply the appointed
chatelains of the Duc de Bourgogne, to whom the property really
belonged.
In various successive eras the edifice was transformed, or added to,
until it took its present form, the gradual transformation leaving
little or no trace of its original plan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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