The Château de Morlanne is a restored castle 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

Morlanne Morlanne (; oc, Morlana) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. Residents are referred to as the ''Morlannais''. See also * Château de Morlanne *Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department The ...

in the

Pyrénées-Atlantiques Pyrénées-Atlantiques (; Gascon Occitan: ''Pirenèus Atlantics''; eu, Pirinio Atlantiarrak or ) is a department in the southwest corner of France and of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Pyrenees mountain range and the Atlant ...

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

'' of France. This imposing brick fortress, forming a polygonal ''

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. Fo ...

'', is a powerful 14th century structure with gateways, a courtyard, moats and a high keep. Inside is a manor house dating from the end of the 16th century. The Château de Morlanne has been listed since 1975 as a '' monument historique'' 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 (visua ...

and is open to visitors.

History

The castle, standing on a

motte A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...

at the southern end of the village, was built about 1370 by the architect Sicard de Lordat for Arnaud-Guilhem, the brother of Gaston Fébus (

Gaston III of Foix-Béarn Gaston Fébus (also spelt Phoebus) (30 April 1331 – 1391) was the eleventh count of Foix (as Gaston III) and twenty-fourth viscount of Béarn (as Gaston X) from 1343 until his death. Early life Gaston was born either in Orthez or Foix, the e ...

), in order to supervise English Gascony. There had been an earlier building on the same site of which there is no description. In the second half of the 15th century, Odet d' Aydie (1425–1498), right-hand man of Charles VII and later of

Louis XI Louis XI (3 July 1423 – 30 August 1483), called "Louis the Prudent" (french: le Prudent), was King of France from 1461 to 1483. He succeeded his father, Charles VII. Louis entered into open rebellion against his father in a short-lived revol ...

, become lord of Morlanne and transformed the austere castle with more chimneys and windows. Further alterations between the 16th century and the 19th century transformed the building over time into pleasurable residence. In 1866, the castle became the property of Albert de Domec, a member of one of the oldest families in Morlanne which had owned the lay abbey for centuries. Various families owned the castle until the

second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

when it became an uninhabited ruin. In 1969, the historian Raymond Ritter (1894–1974) acquired the castle and decided to restore the building as a medieval fortress. Works included restoring the defences of the surrounding wall towards the west starting from the keep, filling in windows added in the 18th and 19th centuries in the part of the enclosing wall next to the keep, rebuilding of the upper half of the keep and some of the buildings that had disappeared from the south-west of the courtyard. In 1975, M. and Mme. Ritter left the castle as well as its collection of works of art and furniture to the ''département'' of Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

Description

The castle is a heptagonal building with unequal angles and sides. The ''enceinte'' is constructed of bricks with pebbles arranged in places in the shape of fern leaves. The corners are constructed of large dressed stones; some stones have been re-used and have evidence of sculpture. The brick built keep is constructed on a square plan and was formerly reached by a drawbridge. A second entry in the south-west is equipped with an identical doorway. It would seem that it was the main entrance. In the courtyard, the main building, again of bricks, has two square storeys. There is also a contemporary building equipped with a lean-to with curved tiles and plastered walls.

Interior

The most harmonious furniture collections are on the first floor. A bedroom from the time of the

Consulate A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth c ...

and

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 ...

has two mahogany beds. The

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

room is hung with

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the ...

s decorated with gold buttons. The library, where a secretary carved the inscription "''Le Roi - La Nation - La Loi''" ("The King - The Nation - The Law"), evokes the period of the Constitutional Monarchy (1791). On the second floor are the Louis XVI bedroom and a gallery of modern paintings. Among the paintings on display are a view of

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

Canaletto Giovanni Antonio Canal (18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768), commonly known as Canaletto (), was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school. Painter of city views or ...

, a painting of the face of an old man by Fragonard, ''The Reader'' by Colson, ''The Happy Family'' by Lépicié and ''Visit to the Wet Nurse'' by Boilly. Other artists represented include Pannini, Snyders and Roslin. An entire room is devoted to the works of the

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

René Morère (1907–1942), a friend of the Ritters.Graphikdesigns.free.fr
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References

External links

*
History of the Château de Morlanne
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morlanne, Chateau De Castles in Nouvelle-Aquitaine Monuments historiques of Nouvelle-Aquitaine Tourist attractions in Pyrénées-Atlantiques