Category: Indre

Château de Valençay

 

 

 

 

The town of Valençay is dominated by the Château de Valençay, built in 1540 by Robert d’Estampes and most notably acquired in 1747 by the Scottish Banker John Law. In 1803 the castle was purchased by the diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand.

 

From the Château de Valençay official website

From the Middle Ages to the 18th Century

The Renaissance style of the Château de Valençay marked the power of the d’Estampes family.

Documents attest to the presence of the seigneurie (or domain) of Valençay from the 13th century, but all that remains from this time is the salle basse (lower medieval hall), located below the current cour d’Honneur (main courtyard). Property of Eudes de Bourgogne at the time and then passed on to his descendants, the fiefdom was acquired in 1451 by Robert II d’Estampes who extended the property.

Ennobled natives of Berry, the powerful d’Estampes family had a very good reputation, integrated themselves into the French aristocracy and held important positions in the hierarchy of the royal court up until the 18th century. Symbol of this prestigious rise to power, the château we know today replaced a feudal manor. It was built in stages thanks to carefully chosen matrimonial alliances. Its architecture reflects the evolution which gradually replaced the fortified castles of the Middle Ages with the Renaissance style.

These architectural changes are linked to the Great Italian Wars, which ran from 1494 to 1559. The sovereigns, François I in particular, and the lords who fought by their sides took this opportunity to marvel at the Italian Renaissance. Implemented a century earlier in Florence, and then in several other Italian cities, this era was inspired by the revival of the literature, philosophy, science and techniques of ancient Rome and Greece. It spread throughout all of Europe. In terms of construction, the treaty written by Vitruvius, an architect of the first century BC, was used as reference. It highlights the principles of symmetry, proportion, regularity and balance.

 

 

The d’Estampes, Great Entrepreneurs of Valençay

Construction of the Château de Valençay began when Louis d’Estampes, grandson of Robert II, married Marie Hurault, daughter of the French Minister of Finances to Louis XII. First built was the large northwest tower and then half of the west facade and two bays of the north gallery. The south gallery, near the Cour d’Honneur, was built in the next decade.

In 1540, Jacques, son of Louis and Marie d’Estampes, who also married into wealth, began to finish building the large tower, adding an imperial roof which was not yet very common.

The marriage between his son Jean and Sara d’Applaincourt, heiress of the fiefdom of Picardie, relaunched construction with the building of a remarkable keep. This square tower flanked by cylindrical turrets on both sides of the entrance and the courtyard had a porte-cochère and a pedestrian door. The construction of a wing symmetrical to the main buildings, between the round tower and the keep was initiated but remained unfinished.

 

The south gallery leading to the main courtyard through basket-handle arches, marks the evolution of the architecture towards the Renaissance style.

The facade of the south gallery The capitals (topmost part of a column or pilaster) were unquestionably inspired by ancient Roman architecture: doric order on the ground floor, ionic order on the first floor and [corynthian] order.

 

 The keep. Although a perfect example of medieval architecture, the keep was not built for defensive purposes. Its monumental grandeur and beauty glorified the power and importance of the owners.

Rich sculpted decorations. Each corbel (an architectural member that projects from within a wall and supports a weight) has a different mask extended by a special kind of foliage. The coats of arms of the cousins of the chatelaine, Sara d’Applaincourt, highlights alliances of the d’Estampes family.

 

View of the château by Roger de Gaignières, 1705. Paris, French National Library, d’Estampes section.

It was under the reign of Louis XIV, when the title of second Marquis de Valencay was given to Jacques II, and then to his son Dominique that the d’Estampes family reached its peak. Dominique made a prestigious alliance in marrying Marie-Louise de Montmorency and had a particularly favorable position in the king’s court. Thanks to him, the buildings surrounding the cour d’Honneur were completed, ending construction of the west wing, coupled with a gallery, construction of a symmetrical wing to the east, and a stone arcade wall to the south closing the courtyard.

 

Valençay in the Classical Age

Following premature deaths in the d’Estampes family and conflicts related to heritage and the estate, the château was sold several times before becoming the property of farmer-general Philippe-Charles de Villemorien in 1766. He also bought the domains of Veuil and Lucay-le-Mâle. The embellishment of the château and the estate cost him two million French livres.

While the wing was destroyed to clear the view as well as the arcade wall, a tower similar to that of the northwest was built south of the main building. In terms of the main building, a new facade was built facing the courtyard and the roof was replaced.

The west wing. The facade, rebuilt in the classical age, has fluted pilasters running all the way up to the top, ionic capitals and a Mansard roof.

 

 

Google Maps – Valençay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Indre 36

 

 

 

Indre is a department in the centre of France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are called Indriens. Indre is part of the current region of Centre-Val de Loire and is surrounded by the departments of Indre-et-Loire, Loir-et-Cher, Cher, Creuse, Vienne, and Haute-Vienne. The préfecture (capital) is Châteauroux and there are three subpréfectures at Le Blanc, La Châtre and Issoudun.

 

 

 

History

Indre is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790, by order of the National Constituent Assembly. The new departments were to be uniformly administered and approximately equal in size and population to one another. The department was created from part of the former province of Berry.

Before the Roman conquest, the Celtic Bituriges tribe occupied an area that included Indre, Cher, and part of Limousin. Their capital was Avaricum (Bourges), and another important settlement was at Argenton-sur-Creuse. The area then became part of Roman Gaul after its conquest by Julius Caesar around 58 BC, and enjoyed a period of stability. Following the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, the Frankish tribes living in Gaul were united under the Merovingians, and succeeded in conquering most of the country in the sixth century AD. From this time, the Franks controlled most of Gaul and the Carolingian Empire was the last stage of their rule. The Carolingian dynasty reached its peak with the crowning of Charlemagne and after his death in 814, it began to fragment. The Carolingian territories were divided into three sections in 843 at the Treaty of Verdun, and the area that is now the department of Indre, became part of West Francia. In 869, the king of Middle Francia died without leaving a legitimate heir, and eventually part of that kingdom was added to West Francia to effectively form the medieval Kingdom of France.

A castle was built at Châteauroux in the late tenth century. In the eleventh century, the lords of Châteauroux were powerful in the region; their “principality” covered two thirds of the current Department of Indre and they had their own coinage.

The 4 arrondissements of the Indre department are:

  1. Arrondissement of Le Blanc, (subprefecture: Le Blanc) with 56 communes. The population of the arrondissement was 32,168 in 2013.
  2. Arrondissement of Châteauroux, (prefecture of the Indre department: Châteauroux) with 80 communes. The population of the arrondissement was 127,499 in 2013.
  3. Arrondissement of La Châtre, (subprefecture: La Châtre) with 58 communes. The population of the arrondissement was 33,172 in 2013.
  4. Arrondissement of Issoudun, (subprefecture: Issoudun) with 49 communes. The population of the arrondissement was 35,252 in 2013.

 

Geography

Indre is a department in central France and is part of the region of Centre-Val de Loire. The capital and largest town in the department is Châteauroux. To the north of Indre lies Loir-et-Cher, to the east Cher, to the south lies Creuse and Haute-Vienne, to the southwest lies Vienne, and to the northwest lies Indre-et-Loire. Most of the department is relatively level plains in the broad Loire Valley.

The area of the department is 5,880 km2 (2,270 sq mi) and it is some 100 km (62 mi) from north to south and some 90 km (56 mi) wide. The land is undulating and slopes gently towards the northwest. The main rivers are the Creuse, the Claise and the Indre. The Creuse, a tributary of the Vienne, is 264 kilometres (164 mi) long and has been impounded in several places; at the time it was built in 1926, the Eguzon Dam was the largest dam in Europe.The Claise is 88 kilometres (55 mi) long and is a tributary of the Creuse. The Indre is a longer waterway and flows centrally through the department from south to north, through the major towns of La Châtre, Châteauroux and Loches. It is a tributary of the Loire, joining it at Chinon in the neighbouring department of Loir-et-Cher.

Indre is divided into four natural regions; North Boischaut is undulating land with an altitude between 80 and 215 m (260 and 710 ft) and occupies the northeast of the department, South Boischaut is hilly and lies in the south and southeast, a marshy tract of land known as Brenne is in the southwestern part of the department, and the flat, dry, flinty limestone plateau of Champagne berrichonne is in the east and continues into Cher. The highest point of the department is near the town of Pouligny-Notre-Dame where the land rises to 459 m (1,506 ft) above sea level.The department is made up of 680,910 ha (1,682,600 acres) of land of which 401,535 ha (992,210 acres) are under arable cropping, 85,305 ha (210,790 acres) are grassland, 67,423 ha (166,610 acres) are woodland, 18,110 ha (44,800 acres) are under grapes and 18,273 ha (45,150 acres) are gardens and orchards. The remaining land is heathland, urban land and waterways.

The economy is mostly agricultural. In the past many sheep were raised in the department and woollen yarn was the main manufactured product. There is also a linen industry as well as the manufacture of hosiery and paper. The department has some minerals in the form of coal, iron, stone, marble and clay.