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

Centre-Val de Loire Centre-Val de Loire (; ,In isolation, ''Centre'' is pronounced . ) or Centre Region (, ), as it was known until 2015, is one of the eighteen Regions of France, administrative regions of France. It straddles the middle Loire Valley in the interior ...

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 is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the Middle Ages, medieval and Early modern France, early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe from th ...

. 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 ( , , ; ; ; ; ) 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. It rises in the so ...

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 (mineral), lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of Science, scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcare ...

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 Allier ( , , ; ) is a Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region that borders Cher (department), Cher to the west, Nièvre to the north, Saône-et-Loire and Loire (department), Loire to the east, Pu ...

, 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, the

orangery An orangery or orangerie is a room or dedicated building, historically where orange and other fruit trees are protected during the winter, as a large form of greenhouse or conservatory. In the modern day an orangery could refer to either ...

, the outbuildings and the entrance

pavilion 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 ...

s. 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 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 Gardens ...

, 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

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; : ''rhododendra'') is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the Ericaceae, heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan ...

s and

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

s, giant

magnolia ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendr ...

s 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 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