The Château de Rochecotte is a late 18th-century

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 French village of Saint-Patrice, near

Langeais Langeais () is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. On 1 January 2017, the former commune of Les Essards was merged into Langeais. Population Sights Langeais has a church of the 11th, 12th and 15th centuries, but is ...

, in

Indre-et-Loire Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River. In 2019, it had a population of 610,079.Boni de Castellane Marie Ernest Paul Boniface de Castellane, Marquis de Castellane (14 February 1867 – 20 October 1932), known as Boni de Castellane, was a French nobleman and politician. He was known as a leading ''Belle Époque'' tastemaker and the first husban ...

, described it as : "A grand

Louis XVI Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...

style château - halfway up a hill dominating the

Loire valley The Loire Valley (, ), spanning , is a valley located in the middle stretch of the Loire river in central France, in both the administrative regions Pays de la Loire and Centre-Val de Loire. The area of the Loire Valley comprises about . It is r ...

– lacking neither charm nor originality. It resembles an Italian villa, with superimposed terraces, from which the view extends to the blue and grey horizon, landscapes from old paintings." In a letter from

Dino Dino may refer to: Prefix * dino-, a common prefix in taxonomy, meaning "terrible", "formidable" **Dinosaur ** Dinosaurus People * Dino (given name), a masculine given name and a nickname * Dino (surname), a surname found in Albania and Turkey ...

to de Barante of 5 July 1828,Jean-Luc Péchinot (1995) ''La duchesse de Dino, dernier amour de Talleyrand'', le Magazine de La Touraine, no. 55, p. 58 she writes "I have a true passion for Rochecotte; to me, it is the most beautiful view and the most beautiful country in the world; at last this is an air which makes me live lightly and then I arrange, I return, I embellish, I appropriate... I took up country life to the letter."

Talleyrand and the duchess of Dino

Originally, the château belonged to the comte de Rochecotte, who became one of the leaders of the second

Chouannerie The Chouannerie (; from the Chouan brothers, two of its leaders) was a House of Bourbon, royalist uprising or counter-revolutionary, counter-revolution in twelve of the western departments of France, ''départements'' of France, particularly in ...

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

and was executed under the

French Directory The Directory (also called Directorate; ) was the system of government established by the Constitution of the Year III, French Constitution of 1795. It takes its name from the committee of 5 men vested with executive power. The Directory gov ...

, in the Champ-de-Mars, in Paris. On 30 April 1828, one of the later owners, the chevalier René de La Selle de Ligné, sold it to

Dorothée de Courlande Dorothea von Biron, Princess of Courland, Duchess of Dino, Duchess of Talleyrand and Duchess of Sagan, known as Dorothée de Courlande or Dorothée de Dino (21 August 1793 – 19 September 1862), was a Baltic German noblewoman, and the ruling Du ...

, duchess of Dino, for 400,000 francs, then a considerable sum.Château de Rochecotte
/ref> According to Jean-Luc Péchinot, "she appreciated its site and its superimposed terraces opening out onto vast horizons (...) she undertook great building works".

The Castellanes

In the grounds of the chateau is a mausoleum to Antonia Terry y Sanchez of Cuba, the mother of Countess

Stanislas de Castellane Stanislas de Castellane (15 October 1875 - 4 July 1959) was a French politician, representing Cantal in parliament several times between 1902 and 1940. Biography He was born in Juigné-sur-Sarthe, the youngest son of Antoine de Castellane and ...

(Natica Terry), sister-in-law of Boni de Castellane and mother of

Emilio Terry Emilio Rene Terry y Sánchez (1890–1969), known as Emilio Terry was a French architect, artist, interior decorator and landscape designer of Cuban-Irish ancestry. Creating furniture, tapestries and objets d'art, he was influenced by the châtea ...

Emilio Terry

Notes

Bibliography

* Françoise de Bernardy, ''Le Dernier Amour de Talleyrand : la Duchesse de Dino (1793–1862)'', Perrin, 1965 *

Boni de Castellane Marie Ernest Paul Boniface de Castellane, Marquis de Castellane (14 February 1867 – 20 October 1932), known as Boni de Castellane, was a French nobleman and politician. He was known as a leading ''Belle Époque'' tastemaker and the first husban ...

, ''Mémoires'', Introduction et notes d'Emmanuel de Waresquiel, Perrin, 1986 * Duchesse de Dino, ''Souvenirs'', 1906, edited by Princess Radziwill, née Castellane * Duchesse de Dino, ''Chronique de 1831 à 1862'', 1909, éd. par la princesse Radziwill, née Castellane * Éric Mension-Rigau, ''Boni de Castellane'', Perrin, 2008 * Jean Orieux, ''Talleyrand, ou le Sphinx incompris'', Flammarion, 1970 * Emmanuel de Waresquiel, ''Talleyrand, le Prince immobile'', Fayard, 2003

External links

Château de Rochecotte
- official site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chateau De Rochecotte Rochecotte Rochecotte Hotels in France