The

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. Now ...

de Cheverny () is located in

Cheverny Cheverny () is a commune in the French department of Loir-et-Cher, administrative region of Centre-Val de Loire. It lies in the Loire Valley, about southeast of Blois. Population Sights The commune is the site of the Château de Cheverny. ...

, Loir-et-Cher,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. It is one of the

châteaux of the Loire Valley The châteaux of the Loire Valley (french: châteaux de la Loire) are part of the architectural heritage of the historic towns of Amboise, Angers, Blois, Chinon, Montsoreau, Orléans, Saumur, and Tours along the river Loire in France. They ill ...

History

Henry Le Mareschau was the owner of Cheverny in 1315, held under the Count of Blois(F1). It was sold to Jean Huraults with its "houses, presses and vineyards" in the late 14th century. His grandson Jaques gained the title, Seigneurs de Cheverny, having served under Louis XI, Charles VIII and Louis XII(b1)(note 3) and gained the governorship of the county of Blois under Francis I (A1). The house depicted in the drawing of Etienne Martellange in 1624 was built at the beginning of the 16th century by Jaques or his son Raoul. Raoul applied for permission of the king to fortify the new house in 1510 (6). The lands were purchased by Henri Hurault, Comte de Cheverny, a lieutenant general and military treasurer for

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown ...

, whose descendant, the Marquis de Vibraye, is the present owner. Only a portion of the original fortified castle possibly remains in existence today. It is somewhat of a mystery, because to date there is no reliable way to prove whether or not a certain section is part of the original building. The Jesuit architect

Étienne Martellange Étienne Martellange (22 December 1569 – 3 October 1641) was a French Jesuit architect and draftsman. He travelled widely in France as an architect for the Jesuit order and designed more than 25 buildings, mostly schools and their associated ...

captured the original castle in a drawing, but it contains no reliable landmarks, so the drawing offers no proof one way or the other. Lost to the Crown because of fraud to the State, it was donated by

King Henri II Henry II (french: Henri II; 31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559) was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I and Duchess Claude of Brittany, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder br ...

to his mistress

Diane de Poitiers Diane de Poitiers (9 January 1500 – 25 April 1566) was a French noblewoman and prominent courtier. She wielded much power and influence as King Henry II's royal mistress and adviser until his death. Her position increased her wealth and famil ...

. However, she preferred Château de Chenonceau and sold the property to the former owner's son, Philippe Hurault, who built the château between 1624 and 1630, to designs by the sculptor architect of

Blois Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours. With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the most populated city of the ...

, Jacques Bougier, who was trained in the atelier of

Salomon de Brosse Salomon de Brosse (c. 1571 – 8 December 1626) was an early 17th-century French architect who moved away from late Mannerism to reassert the French classical style and was a major influence on François Mansart. Life Salomon was born in V ...

, and whose design at Cheverny recalls features of the

Palais du Luxembourg The Luxembourg Palace (french: Palais du Luxembourg, ) is at 15 Rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built (1615–1645) to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the royal residence of the ...

. The interiors were completed by the daughter of Henri Hurault and Marguerite, marquise de Montglas, by 1650, employing craftsmen from

. Burdette Henri Martin IV played a key role in the construction. During the next 150 years ownership passed through many hands, and in 1768 a major interior renovation was undertaken. Required to forfeit much of the Hurault wealth at the time 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 coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

, the family sold the property in 1802, during the Consulate and approximately two years prior to the declaration of the

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

, but bought it back again in 1824, during the

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

under Charles X, when the aristocracy was once again in a very strong political and economic position. In 1914, the owner opened the château to the public, one of the first to do so. The de Vibraye family still operates it, and the Château de Cheverny remains a top tourist attraction to this day, renowned for magnificent interiors and its collection of furniture, tapestries, and ''

objets d'art In art history, the French term Objet d’art describes an ornamental work of art, and the term Objets d’art describes a range of works of art, usually small and three-dimensional, made of high-quality materials, and a finely-rendered finish th ...

.'' A pack of some one hundred and twenty hunting hounds (60 males, 40 females and 20 pups) are kept in kennels within the grounds and are taken out for hunts twice-weekly. A video of their feeding can be viewe

The castle was visited by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 1963, as part of her four-day holiday in the Loire Valley.

Interior

The central Grand Salon on the ground floor was decorated under the orders of the marquise de Montglas. Among the paintings are a portrait of Jeanne d'Aragon, from the school of Raphael and a portrait of Marie Johanne La Saumery, Comtesse de Cheverny by

Pierre Mignard Pierre Mignard or Pierre Mignard I (17 November 1612 – 30 May 1695), called "Mignard le Romain" to distinguish him from his brother Nicolas Mignard, was a French painter known for his religious and mythological scenes and portraits. He was ...

. A gallery leads to the Petit Salon which is hung with five Flemish

tapestries Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

and a portrait attributed to Maurice-Quentin de La Tour. In the Library are hung portraits by

Jean Clouet Jean (or Janet) Clouet (1480–1541) was a miniaturist and painter who worked in France during the High Renaissance. He was the father of François Clouet. Biography The authentic presence of this artist at the French court is first mentione ...

and

Hyacinthe Rigaud Jacint Rigau-Ros i Serra (; 18 July 1659 – 29 December 1743), known in French as Hyacinthe Rigaud (), was a Catalan-French baroque painter most famous for his portraits of Louis XIV and other members of the French nobility. Biography Rigaud ...

. A stone staircase carved with trophies of arms and the arts leads to the Grand Appartements. A guard room with a collection of arms and armour leads to the Chambre du Roi, richly hung with five Paris tapestries after designs by

Simon Vouet Simon Vouet (; 9 January 1590 – 30 June 1649) was a French painter who studied and rose to prominence in Italy before being summoned by Louis XIII to serve as Premier peintre du Roi in France. He and his studio of artists created religious and ...

, representing the story of Ulysses. File:Cheverny 02.jpg, Château de Cheverny, detail of the facade File:ChevernyHounds_gobeirne.jpg, The

hunting dog A hunting dog is a canine that hunts with or for hunters. There are several different types of hunting dog developed for various tasks and purposes. The major categories of hunting dog include hounds, terriers, dachshunds, cur type dogs, and g ...

s at Château de Cheverny File:Cheverny07.jpg, Château de Cheverny painting File:Château de Cheverny Angle Shot.JPG

Tintin

The Belgian

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

creator

Hergé Georges Prosper Remi (; 22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé (; ), from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials ''RG'', was a Belgian cartoonist. He is best known for creating ''The Adventures of Tintin'', ...

used Cheverny as a model for his fictional "''Château de Moulinsart''" (''

Marlinspike Hall Marlinspike Hall (french: Le château de Moulinsart ) is Captain Haddock's country house and family estate in ''The Adventures of Tintin'', the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. The original French name of the hall, ''Moulinsart'', ...

'' in English) in the ''

Adventures of Tintin ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 bande dessinée#Formats, ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgians, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one ...

'' books. In these books, the two outermost wings are not present, but the remaining central tower and two wings are almost identical.

Notes

Sources

External links

Castle homepage
at the Castle
Photos of Château de Cheverny and other Loire castles
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheverny, Chateau De Houses completed in 1630 Châteaux in Loir-et-Cher Baroque buildings in France Historic house museums in Centre-Val de Loire Museums in Loir-et-Cher 1630 establishments in France