The Château de Châtillon-Coligny is a

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

, later replaced with a smaller

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 ...

, in the ''

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

'' of

Châtillon-Coligny Châtillon-Coligny () is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France. The Loing and the Briare Canal run through the town. Sights and monuments * Château de Châtillon-Coligny Notable people *Gaspard I de Coligny (c.1465-1522 ...

in the

Loiret Loiret (; ) is a department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of north-central France. It takes its name from the river Loiret, which is contained wholly within the department. In 2019, Loiret had a population of 680,434.

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the regions of France, admin ...

'' of France. The present structure is heavily modified. Its origins were a medieval fortress whose

keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...

was constructed around 1180. The castle was rebuilt during the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

and demolished from 1798. A new, more modest château was constructed in 1854. Of the original, the keep and a Renaissance

well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

, attributed to

Jean Goujon Jean Goujon (c. 1510 – c. 1565)Thirion, Jacques (1996). "Goujon, Jean" in ''The Dictionary of Art'', edited by Jane Turner; vol. 13, pp. 225–227. London: Macmillan. Reprinted 1998 with minor corrections: . was a French Renaissance sculpt ...

, are the only remains.

Location

The castle is built on a plateau dominating the

Loing The Loing () is a long river in central France, a left tributary of the Seine. Its source is in Sainte-Colombe-sur-Loing, in the southwestern of the department of Yonne, and it flows into the Seine in Saint-Mammès, near Moret-sur-Loing. Its ma ...

valley.

History

*1059: Châtillon was a ''

castrum In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a po ...

'' held by the counts of Blois; it was a simple wooden tower, known as ''Castri Castellionis'' around 1120. *1143: It was destroyed by

Louis VII Louis VII (1120 – 18 September 1180), called the Younger, or the Young (french: link=no, le Jeune), was King of the Franks from 1137 to 1180. He was the son and successor of King Louis VI (hence the epithet "the Young") and married Duchess ...

and the Châtillon family died out. In the mid-12th century, the Champagne family took over the land. *c1180 The keep was erected by Etienne I de Sancerre. The polygonal tower has six faces with

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es in alternate corners, with

rustic Rustic may refer to: *Rural area *Pastoral Architecture * Rustication (architecture), a masonry technique mainly employed in Renaissance architecture * Rustic architecture, an informal architectural style in the United States and Canada with sever ...

bossage Bossage is uncut stone that is laid in place in a building, projecting outward from the building, to later be carved into decorative moldings, capitals, arms, etc. Bossages are also rustic work, consisting of stones which seem to advance beyond ...

s. *1209: The

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons: a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by a ...

of Saint Pierre was founded. *1359: Louis de Melun arranged a wider line of fortifications, extendeded in 1376 around the lower town. *1437: The land passed to the

House of Coligny The House of Coligny is an old French family, originating from the Bresse region of France. Their bloodline ended in 1694. Titles At various points in times, the House of Coligny held the following titles: * seigneurs de Cuchet ( Saint-Sorlin-en- ...

. *1464: Jean III de Coligny ordered the building of the terrace below the

orangery An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very large ...

. The building known as the ''Fer à Cheval'' (horseshoe) probably also dates from this time. *1547 - 1562: Admiral

Gaspard II de Coligny Gaspard de Coligny (16 February 1519 – 24 August 1572), Seigneur de Châtillon, was a French nobleman, Admiral of France, and Huguenot leader during the French Wars of Religion. He served under kings Francis I and Henry II during the It ...

built a gallery terrace to the north of the earlier terrace and another terrace in the west linked to the gallery terrace with a pavilion. The gallery terrace was decorated by

Francesco Primaticcio Francesco Primaticcio (April 30, 1504 – 1570) was an Italian Mannerist painter, architect and sculptor who spent most of his career in France. Biography Born in Bologna, he trained under Giulio Romano in Mantua and became a pupil of I ...

(Le Primatice) and

and the pavilion contained a staircase. Gaspard II also built the sculptured well, attributed to Goujon, and the orangery, one of the first in the country and described as "the most beautiful of the orangeries constructed in France in the 16th century". *1552: The collegiate church and the parish were transferred to a new church in the town. *During the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estim ...

, the ''

enceinte Enceinte (from Latin incinctus: girdled, surrounded) is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the position. For ...

'' was reinforced with six bastions. *1569: Martinangue, governor of

Gien Gien () is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France. Gien is on the river Loire, from Orléans. Gien station has rail connections to Montargis, Nevers and Paris. The town was bought for the royal domain by Philip II of Franc ...

, hunted the reformers and pillaged the castle. *1572: The castle's destruction was ordered and began with the south pavilion, but this was soon interrupted. *1638: Gaspard III hired the painter Duchemin to decorate the castle. *1645: Gaspard IV de Coligny renounced Protestantism. *1648: He was made a duke ('' pairie duché'': an inheritable peerage). He constructed a pavilion with four apartments, gardens possibly designed by

André Le Nôtre André Le Nôtre (; 12 March 1613 – 15 September 1700), originally rendered as André Le Nostre, was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France. He was the landscape architect who designed the gar ...

, the four pavilions in the corner of the garden and the staircase leading to the garden. *1798: Antoine François Gourgeon and Hugues Montbrun, appointed to sell the castle, were authorised to demolish it and sell off the material.J-M Voignier
"La destruction du Château de Châtillon-Coligny"
''Bulletin de la Société d'émulation de l'arrondissement de Montargis'', vol 3, no. 107, April 1998, pages 14-17. ISSN 1153-2297 . Retrieved 6 November 2018. *1816: Charles Emmanuel de Montmorency Luxembourg bought the castle and, in 1854, built the present house. The castle is privately owned. The orangery and terraces have been listed since 1930 and the keep and well classified since 1949 as ''

monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

s'' by the

French Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture (french: Ministère de la Culture) is the ministry of the Government of France in charge of national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and protection of the arts (visual, ...

References

External links

Château de Coligny webpage
on Parkview Group website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chatillon-Coligny, Chateau de Castles in Centre-Val de Loire Monuments historiques of Centre-Val de Loire Loiret

Location

History

See also

References

External links