The Château de Gevrey-Chambertin 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 ...
located in
Burgundy
Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...
, 12 km from
Dijon
Dijon (, , ) (dated)
* it, Digione
* la, Diviō or
* lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920.
The earlies ...
and 30 km from
Beaune
Beaune () is the wine capital of Burgundy in the Côte d'Or department in eastern France. It is located between Lyon and Dijon. Beaune is one of the key wine centers in France, and the center of Burgundy wine production and business. The annua ...
. It, and of associated
vineyard
A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...
land, were purchased in 2012 by businessman Louis Ng of
Macao
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
, for the price of $10 million ($ in dollars).
History
The castle of
Gevrey-Chambertin
Gevrey-Chambertin () is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department of France in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. , was certainly considerably revised in the second half of the 13th century, and was, during
St Bernard lifetime, and even probably slightly earlier, a priory belonging to the
Abbey of Cluny
Cluny Abbey (; , formerly also ''Cluni'' or ''Clugny''; ) is a former Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was dedicated to Saint Peter.
The abbey was constructed in the Romanesque architectural style, with three churches ...
.
[Chartes de Cluny 2693,2722,2949][Les carreaux de pavement vernissés du château de Gevrey-Chambertin, Ed. Delatour] Hughes, bishop of Auxerre, and his sister Maheldis, both descendants of
Manasses of Vergy, a powerful leader of Burgundy in the 9th century, in 1015 and 1019 donated the "CURTIS" called Gevrey to the monastery of Cluny of which abbot was then
St Odilon.
[Archives de Côte d'Or, H 791, H184, G1088, 5H22, C535, Q827]
Then, Yves de Poisey and his nephew
Yves de Chazan, both abbots of Cluny and born of the lords of Vergy, gave its first official appearance to the building, between 1257 and 1275: a vast rectangle, surrounded with moats. The southwest entrance was composed of a stone bridge, and further a
drawbridge
A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable ...
, flanked by two square towers. A big square
tower
A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...
stood at the southeast corner, and at the northeast was a
dovecote
A dovecote or dovecot , doocot ( Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pige ...
on top of a small "cul de lampe" tower. In the northwest, a gallery could be seen on top of a round tower. The wall with its covered way allowed to walk from a tower to the other. Plundering, wars, fires and time have all contributed to the destruction of the fortress. The only remaining parts of the original buildings are the drawbridge (considering that one of the towers and the drawbridge system are lacking), the big square tower, and the living quarters next to the drawbridge. Several remnants of the wall allow one to have an idea of what the castle used to look like.
Among the many works done since 1791, the date of sale of the castle as a national estate and until the end of the 19th century, the conversion of the middle floor of the square tower was probably the cause of the destruction of the exceptional tiled floor, dating from the time of
St Bernard or maybe
Yves de Poisey. This tiled floor, which probably already needed repairing, was not preserved as it should have been, considering its age and its artistic value. It was thrown away in what was called the "arsenal", and which is now a grass-covered terrace. Pieces of these glazed tiles, some intact and some broken, were found from place to place in the lime mortar of some walls, hardly buried in the immediate surroundings of the building, or found in the terrace while working on partly fallen walls.
The castle has been the property of the Masson family since 1858, and is open for wine tasting and visits.
See also
*
Cluny Abbey
Cluny Abbey (; , formerly also ''Cluni'' or ''Clugny''; ) is a former Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was dedicated to Saint Peter.
The abbey was constructed in the Romanesque architectural style, with three churches ...
*
Gevrey-Chambertin
Gevrey-Chambertin () is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department of France in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France.
External links
Federation of Clunisian sites
Notes and references
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gevrey-Chambertin, Chateau De
Castles in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Historic and archaeological sites in Burgundy
Burgundy wine
Châteaux in Côte-d'Or