Since buying the chateau I have been trying to work out the age of the various parts of the building. Everything that I have found on line I have managed to prove to be 80% incorrect! About the only thing that has been written correctly about the chateau is that the main hall and two round
"pepper pot" towers are from the 13th century or even slightly earlier. The hexagonal tower at the front has always been assigned to the 17th century. From the style and look of it I have always believed it to be earlier, 16th century being my suspicion. This week I have managed to prove my theory.
We had the stone mason around so were taking a very good look at the stonework all around the chateau. Whilst looking at the stone doorway into the hexagonal tower I noticed three carved scallop shells on either side. From my research into the history of the chateau I knew that one of the old family of knights that had owned the chateau used these three shells as an emblem. They were the de Grèaulme family. The shells were featured on their coat of arms or as the French would say - on their Blason. I needed to check the dates as I knew that the de Grèaulme were here on two separate occasions.
Upon checking my research I found that René de Grèaulme was Lord of the chateau from 1529. The chateau remained in the hands of his family for three generations until 1561 when it was acquired by Geoffroy Bertrand.
The de Grèaulme reaquired the chateau in 1695 which was far too late for the tower to have been built in this style. Strangely the second de Gréaulme ownership was also a period of great renovation and expansion for the chateau - one assumes that this family had money!! I will write more about the later generations of the de Gréaulme family another day.
Surfice to say that in the 1500's the chateau was greatly expanded and changed. As well as adding the hexagonal tower they also added what I now refer to as the middle and east wings. Judging by the carved stones that we have found buried they also knocked down a fair bit of the old chateau. Hopefully if you look at the plan and the photos you will understand the dates and layout. The red areas are the original 1200's hall and towers. The blue areas the extensions from the early 1500's and finally the green is the extension from the 1700's. Also
in the 1700's the roof was remodelled and many new windows added. We know this from the date of 1710 carved into one of the stone windows at the back of the chateau. Also because cast iron windows were fitted into the new roof. These only came into existence with this style and quality in the mid 1700's. The style of roof that we see today became fashionable in the reign of Louis XV.
Comments
Post a Comment