Theme Week Chateaux of the Loire Valley – Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire

Thursday, 23 June 2011 - 03:44 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, Architecture, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time:  4 minutes

© Peter Dutton

© Peter Dutton

The Château de Chaumont is a French castle at Chaumont-sur-Loire in Loir-et-Cher.

The first château-fort on this site between Blois and Amboise was a primitive fortress built by Eudes II, Count of Blois, in the 10th century with the purpose of protecting Blois from attacks from his feudal rivals, the counts of Anjou. On his behalf the Norman Gelduin received it, improved it and held it as his own. His great-niece Denise de Fougère, having married Sulpice d’Amboise, passed the château into the Amboise family for five centuries. The castle was burned to the ground in 1465 in accordance with Louis XI’s orders and was later rebuilt by Charles I d’Amboise from 1465–1475 and then finished by his son, Charles II d’Amboise de Chaumont from 1498–1510, with help from his uncle, Cardinal Georges d’Amboise; some Renaissance features were to be seen in buildings that retained their overall medieval appearance.

The Château de Chaumont was purchased by Catherine de Medici in 1560, a year after her late husband Henry II’s death. There she entertained numerous astrologers, among them Nostradamus. In 1559 she forced Diane de Poitiers, her late husband’s long-term mistress, to exchange the Château de Chenonceau for the Château de Chaumont. Diane de Poitiers only lived at Chaumont for a short while.

aerial view © Lieven Smits West wing © Manfred Heyde © Christophe Finot © Ze Stables © Patrick GIRAUD © Manfred Heyde © Christophe Finot View from the inner courtyard at the Loire river © Manfred Heyde © Peter Dutton
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View from the inner courtyard at the Loire river © Manfred Heyde
In 1594, at the death of Diane’s grand-daughter Charlotte de la Marck, the chateau passed to her husband the vicomte de Turenne, who sold it to a tax farmer Largentier, who had grown rich on gathering in the salt tax called the gabelle. Largentier eventually being arrested for peculation, the chateau and the title of sieur de Chaumont passed into a family originating at Lucca, who possessed it until 1667, when it passed by family connections to the seigneurs de Ruffignac.

The duc de Beauvilliers bought the chateau in 1699, modernized some of its interiors and decorated it with sufficient grandeur to house the duc d’Anjou on his way to become king of Spain in 1700. His eventual heir was forced to sell Chaumont to pay his debts to a maître des requêtes ordinaire to Louis XV, Monsieur Bertin, who demolished the north wing built by Charles II d’Amboise and the Cardinal d’Amboise, to open the house towards the river view in the modern fashion.

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Read more on Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire and Wikipedia Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organisations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.




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