''La bande noire'' ("The black band") was the name given to some speculative, asset-stripping organizations in the 1790s that bought ancient castles and abbeys at knockdown prices in the wake of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

, only to demolish them and sell off the building materials. These speculators also bought the works of art of all kinds which they contained, and then broke up the surrounding landed estates into small and often unviable parcels of land. Among the famous

château A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Nowaday ...

x destroyed were: * Château des Ormes (

Poitou Poitou (, , ; ; Poitevin: ''Poetou'') was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers. Both Poitou and Poitiers are named after the Pictones Gallic tribe. Geography The main historical cities are Poitiers (historical c ...

), *

Château de Chanteloup The Château de Chanteloup was an imposing 18th-century French château with elaborate gardens, compared by some contemporaries to Versailles. It was located in the Loire Valley on the south bank of the river Loire, downstream from the town of Amb ...

* Château de Leugny * Château de Courmenant *

Château de Selles-sur-Cher Château de Selles-sur-Cher () is a castle (''châteaux, château'') located in the commune of Selles-sur-Cher, Loir-et-Cher, Centre-Val de Loire, Centre Region, France. The château is privately owned and is a designated Monument historique, hist ...

Their dramatic name was invented by the Romantic writers. The ruin of such ornamented and "ancient" structures played to the Romantic focus on scenic locales and tragic histories. ''La bande noire'' is also the title of a well-known poem by

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

, written in 1823 and published in his ''

Nouvelles Odes ''Odes et Ballades'', published in 1828, is the most complete version of a collection of poems by Victor Hugo written and published between 1822 and 1828. It includes five books of odes and one book of ballads. They are among his very earliest wor ...

'', also about such speculation.

References

* fr.wiki's ''Bande noire (Révolution)'', which includes extracts from the

Dictionnaire Bouillet ''Dictionnaire Bouillet'' is the informal title of the ''Dictionnaire universel d'histoire et de géographie'' ("Universal Dictionary of History and Geography"), a French reference work in the public domain. The first edition was published in 18 ...

. * E. Cobham Brewer. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, (1894). Economic history of France Groups of the French Revolution •'The Discovery of France ' by Graham Robb (Picador) - Ch14 - reference to Balzac ('Le Curé de Campagne') {{France-hist-stub