Château de Villesavin () is a 16th-century country house in the

Tour-en-Sologne Tour-en-Sologne (, literally ''Tour in Sologne'') is a commune of the Loir-et-Cher department in the administrative region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. Population See also *Communes of the Loir-et-Cher department A commune is an altern ...

commune in

Loir-et-Cher Loir-et-Cher (, ) is a Departments of France, department in the Centre-Val de Loire Regions of France, region of France. It is named after two rivers which run through it, the Loir in its northern part and the Cher (river), Cher in its southern p ...

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 ...

, France. The château is a designated historical monument of France. It is privately owned and contains several museums open to the public.

History and features

Château Villesavin is built on the Beuvron, on what was once a

Roman Gaul Roman Gaul refers to GaulThe territory of Gaul roughly corresponds to modern-day France, Belgium and Luxembourg, and adjacent parts of the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany. under provincial rule in the Roman Empire from the 1st century B ...

ic settlement called ''Villa Savinus''. A medieval manor was later built on the site, and owned by Guy de Châtillon, Count of Blois, in the early 14th century. The present château was built by Jean le Breton, Lord of Villandry, who was the financial secretary under King François I. The château was designed by the French renaissance style by the same Italian and French masters who built Château de Chambord, away, including Benvenuto Cellini. Le Breton supervised the construction of Chambord on behalf of the king, and decided to build his own home nearby using the same materials and designers, and possibly some of the same budget. The château was constructed between 1527 and 1537, during which time le Breton also built his other home, Château de Villandry. The château consists of a main horseshoe shaped house, with dormers framed by volutes and

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s, decorated with the royal emblem of François I. In the rear is a moat and small bridge. The spiral staircase inside appears to have been inspired by Chambord, while stained-glass windows contain scenes from '' Metamorphoses'' by the poet

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

. On either side of the main house are two single-story horseshoe-shaped wings, each with rectangular corner pavilions and courtyards. Le Breton skipped the round towers of châteaux like Chambord to install more innovative square corner pavilions, which had just come into fashion in France. The left pavilion contains a chapel, which includes late 16th-century murals depicting the Passion of the Christ in the style of the Second School of Fontainebleau. In the central courtyard is an Italian marble fountain decorated with chimeras, lion masks, and dolphins. The grounds also contain a very large and rare

dovecote A dovecote or dovecot , doocot (Scots Language, Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house Domestic pigeon, pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or b ...

with 1,500 holes. The 16th-century dovecote is one of the few that survived the French Revolution, as owning doves was a royal privilege and status symbol of the nobility. To the peasantry, however, the birds were seen as pests, as they would descend on the fields and eat seeds and crops, but the peasants were forbidden from shooting them. Nearly all the dovecotes were destroyed during the revolution.

Château today

The château had been abandoned when it was purchased by the Count and Countess de Sparre in 1937. It has been open to the public since 1954. The estate hosts weddings every weekend from April to November. In 2000, owners Lars and Véronique de Sparre, the present Count and Countess, opened a museum dedicated to weddings, with artifacts dating to 1840.

Gallery

File:Villesavin castle, aerial view cropped.jpg, Aerial view of the château File:Villesavin06.jpg, Inscription with name of Jean le Breton and completion date of 1537 File:Villesavin01.jpg, Château from the rear File:Vasque en marbre de Carrare au centre de la cour d'honneur.JPG, Italian marble statue File:Tour-en-Sologne (Loir-et-Cher) (10103895936).jpg, Front of château File:Villesavin04.jpg, Frescoes in the chapel File:Colombier à pied à échelle tournante.JPG, Dovecote File:Musée du mariage.jpg, Wedding dresses in the marriage museum File:Salle des globes.JPG, Wedding crowns Château de Villesavin-Hochzeitsmuseum-116-Schmuck-2008-gje.jpg, Wedding crowns

References

External links

*
Les Amis de Villesavin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Villesavin, Chateau de Châteaux in Loir-et-Cher Châteaux of the Loire Valley Museums in Loir-et-Cher Historic house museums in Centre-Val de Loire Houses completed in 1537 Monuments historiques of Loir-et-Cher French Renaissance architecture Renaissance architecture in France