The Château de Châteauneuf-sur-Loire is a French castle, built in the 17th and 18th centuries, located in

Châteauneuf-sur-Loire Châteauneuf-sur-Loire () is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France. Population Twin towns * Amarante, Portugal * Bad Laasphe, Germany See also * Communes of the Loiret department The following is the list of the 325 ...

in the department of

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.< ...

in the Centre-Val de Loire region. The Loire Navy Museum () is located in the old stables of the castle.

Geography

Originally, the castle was built in the former province of Orléanais of the

Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France ( fro, Reaume de France; frm, Royaulme de France; french: link=yes, Royaume de France) is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period ...

. The building is located in the natural region of the Loire Valley, at the corner of the Douves and Aristide-Briand squares, in the town center of the commune, near the north bank of the

Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...

History

The construction of the castle began in the 17th century. Certain parts and structures of the seigneurial residence are made using a yellow

calcareous Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcareous'' is used as an ad ...

stone from the quarries of the town of Apremont-sur-Allier. The blocks of stone were then transported by waterway via the course of the Allier, then that of the

using flat-bottomed boats. It was bought between 1792 and 1794 by the Orléans architect Benoît Lebrun who had a large part of the building destroyed. It retained only the rotunda, a

gallery Gallery or The Gallery may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Art gallery ** Contemporary art gallery Music * Gallery (band), an American soft rock band of the 1970s Albums * ''Gallery'' (Elaiza album), 2014 album * ''Gallery'' (Gr ...

, 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 lar ...

, the outbuildings and the entrance

pavilions In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

. He died there on September 29, 1819. The commune of Châteauneuf-sur-Loire bought the castle in 1926 and set up schools and the town hall there.

Park

The organization of the park, dating from the 17th century, first followed the influence of André Le Nôtre, gardener to the King of France in the 17th century. In 1821, the space was remodeled into an English-style park under the impetus of René Charles Huillard d'Hérou. The park extends over twenty hectares and includes a river that connects the castle moat to the banks of the Loire. In 1934, the General Council of Loiret became the owner of the park and managed its development. Notable flora include the alley of arborescent

rhododendrons ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...

and

azaleas Azaleas are flowering shrubs in the genus ''Rhododendron'', particularly the former sections '' Tsutsusi'' (evergreen) and ''Pentanthera'' (deciduous). Azaleas bloom in the spring (April and May in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, and Octo ...

, giant magnolias and tulip trees. The park is home to around 30 remarkable trees, including a Japanese pagoda tree and a Virginia tulip tree registered since June 2009 in the directory of remarkable trees in France. The reconstruction of the Temple of Love originally built in the park in the 18th century was carried out by students from the Lycée Gaudier-Brzeska in

Saint-Jean-de-Braye Saint-Jean-de-Braye () is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France. It is an eastern suburb of Orléans. The organist and musicologist Norbert Dufourcq (1904–1990) was born in the commune. On 14 February 2020, the municipal c ...

and inaugurated on February 14, 2009. In 2010-2011, the General Council of Loiret developed 7 hectares of the park in order to clean up the park's wetlands and connect the promenade to the Loire.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chateauneuf-sur-Loire, Chateau Châteaux in Loiret Châteaux of the Loire Valley