Château de Clermont
Encyclopedia
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...
of Le Cellier
Le Cellier
Le Cellier is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.-Monuments and sites of interest:The commune lies on the north bank of the Loire River; this spot offers magnificent views....
, 27 kilometres (17 mi) from Nantes
Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. It was owned by the Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant
Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a popular 19th-century French writer, considered one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of the form's finest exponents....
family before becoming the property of the actor Louis de Funès
Louis de Funès
Louis Germain David de Funès de Galarza was a very popular French actor who is one of the giants of French comedy alongside André Bourvil and Fernandel...
.
Appearance and architecture
The appearance of the castle has remained broadly the same since its construction at the time of the regency of Anne of AustriaAnne of Austria
Anne of Austria was Queen consort of France and Navarre, regent for her son, Louis XIV of France, and a Spanish Infanta by birth...
during the minority of Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
. Its southern aspect, which overlooks the River Loire offers a panoramic view over the Pays des Mauges and the Pays de Retz
Pays de Retz
The Pays de Retz is a historical region of France that currently forms part of the Loire-Atlantique department, but which previously formed part of the Duchy of Brittany....
. The northern aspect has a shaded avenue perpendicular to the Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
-Nantes road framed by the original wings of the château. It is surrounded by 3 hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
s (7.4 acres) of parkland and a vineyard
Vineyard
A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...
of 17 hectares (42 acres). Louis de Funès
Louis de Funès
Louis Germain David de Funès de Galarza was a very popular French actor who is one of the giants of French comedy alongside André Bourvil and Fernandel...
had a rose garden
Rose garden
A Rose garden or Rosarium is a garden or park, often open to the public, used to present and grow various types of garden roses. Designs vary tremendously and roses may be displayed alongside other plants or grouped by individual variety, colour or class in rose beds.-Origins of the rose...
planted, but nothing remains of it today.
Château de Clermont shows three major characteristics of the Louis XIII style
Louis XIII style
The Louis XIII style or Louis Treize was a fashion in French art and architecture, especially effecting the visual and decorative arts. Its distinctness as a period in the history of French art has much to do with the regency under which Louis XIII began his reign...
:
- pink bricks and masonry which softens the formal lines of the layout
- distinctive and unique slate roofs of various of the main buildings
- the central part of the building being used to house the main staircase and dominating the surrounding construction.
The large avenue crosses two moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
s and brings visitors in the central courtyard flanked by the wings.
Wings
The two wings contained the servants rooms: sleeping quarters, stables, and greenhouses, placed where they could be watched by the master of the house. Where the wings join the main body of the house are the kitchens on the right and on the left the chapel, the altarAltar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
still displaying its original retable
Retable
A retable is a framed altarpiece, raised slightly above the back of the altar or communion table, on which are placed the cross, ceremonial candlesticks and other ornaments....
. From the centre of the wings arched passages arched lead out: on the right to the gardens and on the left to the farmyard. The two entrances provide both convenience and break the monotony of the formal lines. A gallery runs along the first floor of the right-hand wing.
The wings of Clermont are very different from those of other castles from the same period of the 17th century. Up until 1624, wings were designed to be of the same or very similar height to that of the main house, so the courtyard was enclosed on three sides, an echo of the former defensive role of castles. The Rocher-Portail, near Fougères
Fougères
Fougères is a commune and a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany, in north-western France.-Sights:Fougères' major monument is a medieval stronghold built atop a granite ledge, which was part of the ultimately unsuccessful defence system of the Duchy of Brittany against...
, is a rare intact example of this kind of architecture. Clermont is one of the last châteaux to have wings attached to the central building in this fashion. They are, however, smaller, lower and have an Italian influence, natural enough at a time when many French architects were studying in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
. Clermont was completed just before 1650, the year when, following the trend started by the builders of Vaux-le-Vicomte
Vaux-le-Vicomte
The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, 55 km southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne département of France...
and François Mansart
François Mansart
François Mansart was a French architect credited with introducing classicism into Baroque architecture of France...
at the Château de Beaumesnil, the central bodies of the majority of new castles started to be built separated from the wings.
Mixture of styles
Corbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
ling is used on both the northern and southern sides, and on the Loire side machicolation
Machicolation
A machicolation is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones, or other objects, could be dropped on attackers at the base of a defensive wall. The design was developed in the Middle Ages when the Norman crusaders returned. A machicolated battlement...
s are utilised to support the high roofs. Regardless of their architectural heritage, overall the features blend to a harmonious whole.
History
The castle was inherited by the de Funès family from an aunt, the Countess of Maupassant. It was built by the Chenu de Clermont, a family of important military administrators. René Chenu, (1599–1672) was a long-time governor of the fortified towns of OudonOudon
Oudon is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France....
and Champtoceaux
Champtoceaux
Champtoceaux is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department of western France.-Twin towns: Verwood in East Dorset, England. Niederheimbach in the Mainz-Bingen Kreis of Germany. Calcinato in the province of Brescia, in the Lombardy region of Italy...
which dominated the Loire upstream. His son Hardy Chenu (1621–1683) was in charge of the fortifications, cities, castles and fortified towns of Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
.
The Chenu were vassal
Vassal
A vassal or feudatory is a person who has entered into a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. The obligations often included military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain privileges, usually including the grant of land held...
s of the House of Condé
Prince of Condé
The Most Serene House of Condé is a historical French house, a noble lineage of descent from a single ancestor...
, who had many holdings in the west of France, and this feudal relationship, so strong under Ancien Régime, was increased by a strong personal friendship. Rene Chenu was the contemporary and loyal ally of Henry II de Bourbon, prince de Condé
Henry II de Bourbon, prince de Condé
Henri de Bourbon became Prince of Condé shortly after his birth, following the death of his father Henri I...
. The birth and death of Hardy Chenu coincide with those of Louis II de Bourbon-Condé
Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé
Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé was a French general and the most famous representative of the Condé branch of the House of Bourbon. Prior to his father's death in 1646, he was styled the Duc d'Enghien...
, the Grand Condé, whom he served. It is traditionally held that one of the Chenu, either the father or the son, saved the life of their master, and that Clermont was constructed to express his recognition of the act. In any case, the construction of Clermont, with its imposing proportions, testifies to some princely expenditure. The castle of Clermont was built shortly after the Battle of Rocroi
Battle of Rocroi
The Battle of Rocroi was fought on 19 May 1643, late in the Thirty Years' War. It resulted in a victory of the French army under the Duc d'Enghien, against the Spanish army under General Francisco de Melo.-Prelude:...
(19 May 1643), where the Grand Condé, saved the throne of the enfant Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
and merited a considerable reward. It reflects enthusiasm of a period filled with glory.