Chateau des Bretignolles Restoration

It’s been an absolute delight seeing the Chateau in Anche being lovingly restored by its current owners. They have a both an Instagram and Facebook, where they regularly post pictures of their work.

The Chateau was in the de Pierres family for over a hundred years (1811-1932) and Jane and Etienne lived there in the 1850’s, 60’s, and 70’s.

BRETIGNOLLES, was built between 1498 and 1501, with the square plan pavilion to the south-east. The latter is docked with a trapezoidal turret posterior to the rest of the building, but whose existence has already been attested in the 18th century. The keeper’s house, at the entrance to the park, was built in 1848.

A wind turbine was installed in the park in the last quarter of the 19th century. The property is enclosed to the north by a long stone wall on which stands an elegant 16th century turret at the northeast corner.

The house, of rectangular plan, is confined by four dissimilar towers: to the northeast, a polygonal tower out of work which shelters a spiral staircase; to the north-west a horseshoe tower with a conical roof; to the south-east, a rectangular pavilion with a four-sided roof; to the southwest a circular tower with a conical roof.

The north facade of the house has two bays, each made up of three mullioned windows surmounted by a dormer. The berries are surmounted by return drip molds adorned with caps. This decor is incomplete, several bays being simply provided with waiting stones. The north facade and the three towers are in freestone.

The facade to the east and the pavilion to the south-east are in rubble stone with a corner chain.

The south facade is in coated rubble stone. A trapezoidal construction fits into the angle formed by the pavilion and the south wall of the main building.

In the park, to the east, a cylindrical stone tower supported by three buttresses is pierced with four archers in its lower part, while the upper part has been converted into a dovecote.

And some more pictures of my visit there in 2016.

Chateau des Bretignolles

Inside Les Bretignolles

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