Boumois Castle – Wikipedia

The Boumois castle It is a Castle in France located in the municipality of Saint-Martin-de-la-Place, about ten kilometers from Saumur, in the Maine and Loire department.

The first castle was located 500 meters south of the current building, on the right bank of Loire. ^[first] Built in the thirteenth century, the fortress was destroyed by the British during the one hundred years. ^{[2] [3]}

The current castle was built close to Loire’s embankment at the beginning of the 16th century, starting from 1515, by René de Thory, lord of Boumois, and by his wife, Anne Axis. ^[4] In October 1521 De Thory stipulated a contract with the master bricklayer Jean Pymotz for the construction of the vaults of the kitchen and the pantry and of two stairs that led to the basement, and with the blacksmith Jean Raciquot, who had afraid of the construction of addictions a South in 1520. ^[2]

A contract from 1524 establishes the construction of the Colombaia, of a wall with two doors to close the courtyard to the east and the north wing of 107 feet in length, which bordered with the courtyard and was joined to the chapel, at the time recently built . Before 1530, the rooms were built between the chapel and the pigno of the building and a wall of fence of the five hundred garden of length, south of the building. ^[2] The chapel, dedicated to Sant’Anna, was consecrated in 1546. ^[3]

During the religious wars, between 1560 and 1570, two racing bastions of the corners and the moat were built to strengthen the defenses of the building. The original entrance of the courtyard wall was replaced by a portal on inspiration by the Italian architect Sebastiano Serlio at the end between the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 16th. At the same time two towers were built on the sides of the portal. ^[2] In July 1604 Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, Governor of Saumur, left the city to escape the plague and took refuge in Boumois castle with his wife. The castle remained owned by the Thoury family until January 30, 1607, when Charles Thoury and his wife Suzanne Coutant gives up the land to François Peyrat, treasurer of Madame de Montpensier. He died in the night between 1 and 2 October 1612; So the castle was sold by the widow, Philippe de Ragois, René Gautier, lawyer general of the Grand Council of France and superintendent of the Order of Fontevraud, who purchased him on November 13, 1613 for 34 117 lives. He built new addictions. ^[3]

At the end of the seventeenth century or at the beginning of the eighteenth, the wings of the castle were elevated around the courtyard. In 1700 the castle became the property of René Berthelot, belonging to the Chamber of Counts of Brittany; So, through his daughter’s wedding, he moved on to the Gohin family. Marie Gohin married Gilles-Louis-Antoine Aubert du Petit-Thouars on November 13, 1754. ^[first] The Aubert du Petit-Thouars family then made one of its main places of residence of the castle. ^{[2] [3]}

The castle changed the owner again in 1833. ^[3] The south wing was destroyed in 1859, as well as a farm located in the courtyard. ^[2] In 1889 the area, by 45 hectares, it was delivered to go levé barrel. ^[3] The sixteenth -century windows of the chapel (which depicted, among other things, René Thory and his family) were sold at the end of the nineteenth century ^[2] to an antique dealer. ^[3]

In 1944, during a bombing near the railway tracks, a bomb broke out near the southern part of the building and the roof, the transition and the doors were damaged. ^[2] From 18 August 1953 the Castle and the Fossati, the tiled internal floor and the perfectly preserved original Colombaia, with 1800 compartments, ^[4] Historical monument are classified.

Michel Laroche Grillault inherited the castle in 1965, in a state of deep degradation. The windows were broken, the entire roof was to be redone, in particular after the 1944 bomb, and a tree even grew in the hall. There were, of course, neither running water nor electricity. The restoration lasted 30 years, in which it was attempted to bring the palace back to its original appearance.

The castle has a style halfway between the late Gothic and the style of the first French Renaissance. The influence of the Renaissance is particularly visible in the sculptural decoration and in the presence of twenty century tortile columns. ^[3]

From the outside the castle shows itself as a fortified belt closed around a courtyard of honor; ^[4] The two guard towers on the sides of the monumental door of the courtyard date back to the beginning of the seventeenth century, as well as the portal inspired by Serlio.

The residence is located on the bottom of the courtyard, flanked by a polygonal corner tower. ^[4] Between the house and the chapel there are four small vault rooms. ^[5] The walkway walking that extends over three sides and the towers in an advanced position compared to the facade have, as in the Langeais Castle, a more than defensive aesthetic function. ^[first]

Inside the salon on the first floor houses a collection of weapons of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; On the second floor there are a room with wooden vault, Ronda’s journey and the chapel. ^[4]

• ( FR ) Christian Cussonneau, Boumois: the last Gothic castle in Anjou , in Bulletin monumental , not. 158-2, French Society of Archeology, 2000, pp. 119-146.
• Patrizia Fabbri, Art and History: Castelli and Città della Loira , Bonechi, 2006, ISBN 9788847618619.
• Georges Poisson, Castelli della Loira , Novara, De Agostini Geographical Institute, 1963.
• ( FR ) Célestin Port, Historical, geographic and biographical dictionary of Maine-et-Loire and the old province of Anjou , flight. 1, Angers, H. Siraudeau et Cie, 1965.