The Château de Lignières is a French

château A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, 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 re ...

, located in the municipality of Lignières, in the ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

'' of

Cher Cher ( ; born Cheryl Sarkisian, May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Goddess of Pop", she is known for her Androgyny, androgynous contralto voice, Music an ...

. It was built in 1654–1660 for the financier Jérôme de Nouveau to the designs of the French architect

François Le Vau François Le Vau (; 1624 – 4 July 1676) was a French architect and a founding member of the Académie Royale d'Architecture (established in 1671). He is also known for being the youngest brother of the more famous French architect, Louis Le Va ...

.Hautecoeur 1948, pp. 115–117. It was designated a ''

monument historique () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, ...

'' on 27 June 1935.Notice no. PA00096826

Base Mérimée The ''Base Mérimée'' () is the database of French monumental and architectural heritage, created and maintained by the French Ministry of Culture. It was created in 1978, and placed online in 1995. The database is periodically updated, and conta ...

Design and construction

The feudal

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

(''château féodal'') on the site was razed in 1653, and the property sold by Brichanteau to Jérome de Nouveau, Surintendant Général des Postes, who brought in the architect François Le Vau to design the new château.Hautecoeur 1948, p. 116. The contract was signed on 9 May 1654. Jérôme de Nouveau hired Michel eRoy, a sculptor-contractor and master mason from

Bourges Bourges ( ; ; ''Borges'' in Berrichon) is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre (Cher), Yèvre. It is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Cher (department), Cher, and also was the capital city of the former provin ...

, to supervise the work. François Le Vau constructed the new building on the foundations of the old and retained the old moat and its defensive wall ('' fausse braye''). His designs for the château are preserved in four engravings by Claude Olry de Loriande. The new ''

corps de logis In architecture, a ''corps de logis'' () is the principal or main block, or central building of a mansion, country or manor house, castle, or palace. It contains the rooms of principal business, the state apartments and the ceremonial or formal ...

'' was built from 1654 to 1656. It was connected to two end

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 ...

by curved façades, similar to what architect

François Mansart François Mansart (; 23 January 1598 – 23 September 1666) was a French architect credited with introducing classicism into the Baroque architecture of France. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' identifies him as the most accomplished of 17th-c ...

had done for the (1623) and his ''grand dessein'' for the

Château de Blois A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, 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 re ...

(1635–1638), and which François Le Vau's older brother, the architect

Louis Le Vau Louis Le Vau (; c. 1612 – 11 October 1670) was a French Baroque architect, who worked for Louis XIV of France. He was an architect that helped develop the French Classical style in the 17th century.''Encyclopedia of World Biography''"Louis Le ...

, would use later.See Louis Le Vau's

Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte () or simply Vaux-le-Vicomte is a Baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne department of Île-de-France. Built between 1658 and 1661 for Nicolas Fouquet, M ...

( Commons:File:L'Architecture française (Marot) BnF RES-V-371 038r-f83 Vaux-le-Vicomte, Plan (adjusted).jpg). File:Château de Lignières (Cher) – Hautecoeur 1948 t2, p116, fig 103 plan.jpg, Architectural plan Château de Lignières (Cher) – Hautecoeur 1948 t2, p117, fig 104 façade sur cour.jpg, Courtyard elevation showing the curved connecting façades

Notes

Bibliography

* Berger, Robert W. (1993). ''The Palace of the Sun: The Louvre of Louis XIV''. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press. . * Feldmann, Dietrich (1996). "Le Vau", vol. 19, pp. 262–268, in ''

The Dictionary of Art ''Grove Art Online'' is the online edition of ''The Dictionary of Art'', often referred to as the ''Grove Dictionary of Art'', and part of Oxford Art Online, an internet gateway to online art reference publications of Oxford University Press, ...

'', 34 volumes, edited by Jane Turner. New York: Grove. . Also available a
Oxford Art Online
(subscription required). * Hautecoeur, Louis (1948). ''Histoire de l'Architecture classique en France. Tome 2: Le Règne de Louis XIV''. Paris: J. Picard. . *

Laprade, Albert Albert Laprade (29 November 1883 – 9 May 1978) was a French architect, perhaps best known for the Palais de la Porte Dorée. During a long career he undertook many urban renewal projects as well as major industrial and commercial works. A sk ...

(1960). ''François d'Orbay: Architecte de Louis XIV''. Paris: Éditions Vincent, Fréal. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Lignières, Chateau De, Cher Châteaux in Cher Monuments historiques of Cher (department)