Château de Lugny
Encyclopedia
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Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
in the commune
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...
of Lugny
Lugny
Lugny may refer to the following places in France:* Lugny, Saône-et-Loire, a commune in the department of Saône-et-Loire* Lugny, Aisne, a commune in the department of Aisne* Lugny-Bourbonnais, a commune in the department of Cher...
in the Saône-et-Loire
Saône-et-Loire
Saône-et-Loire is a French department, named after the Saône and the Loire rivers between which it lies.-History:When it was formed during the French Revolution, as of March 4, 1790 in fulfillment of the law of December 22, 1789, the new department combined parts of the provinces of southern...
département of France.
Description
In the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, the Château de Lugny, flanked by several towers and equipped with an “extremely high and very beautiful” keep
Keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...
, was surrounded by ditches filled with water from the source of the Bourbonne River - known as the “source des eaux bleues” (blue waters) - which rises at the foot of the castle hill. However, of the imposing castle of the lords of Lugny, burnt down during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, there remains today only two round three-storey towers, traditionally dated from the 14th century, and part of the common buildings corresponding essentially to those of the old lower courtyard of the manorial residence and forming a quadrilateral.
To each of the two gate towers a narrow building is joined. These, built perpendicularly one with the other, are covered by high tiled roofs. The building adjoining the north-east tower is a circular turret whose roof is pierced by an attic window dominating the angle between the building and the tower.
Having passed the two gate towers - which originally flanked a gateway with a drawbridge
Drawbridge
A drawbridge is a type of movable bridge typically associated with the entrance of a castle surrounded by a moat. The term is often used to describe all different types of movable bridges, like bascule bridges and lift bridges.-Castle drawbridges:...
- one discovers on the left three openings to partially walled arcades which were once the former conciergerie.
On the right can be seen two elegant bays and their profiled semicircular arches and the entry to the old castle stables - traditionally dated from the 16th century.
The building in which the lords of Lugny resided was built formerly on the flat land between the present church and the castle hill. Set on fire in July 1789, it almost entirely disappeared and all that remains of this construction is the base of a circular tower and, a few metres away, a small portion of the old wall.
The château is private property and not open to the public.
History
House of Lugny- Lugny in the Middle AgesMiddle AgesThe Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
was the cradle of a house of chivalryChivalryChivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood which has an aristocratic military origin of individual training and service to others. Chivalry was also the term used to refer to a group of mounted men-at-arms as well as to martial valour...
– the House of Lugny – whose motto was : « N’est oyseau de bon nid qui n’a plume de Lugny ». This family died out in the middle of the 16th century with Jean de Lugny and the estate therefore passed successively, through the hands of three families.
House of Chabot
- 1558 : Françoise de Lugny, lady of Lugny, daughter and heir of Jean de Lugny married François Chabot
House of Saulx
- 1579 : Catherine Chabot, lady of Lugny, daughter and heir of the preceding, married Jean de Saulx, Viscount de Tavannes and Viscount de Lugny
- Start of 17th century : Charles de Saulx became Marquis de Lugny
House of La Baume
- 1647 : Claire-Françoise de Saulx, daughter and heir of the preceding, married Charles-François de La Baume, Count of Montrevel, whose family kept the estate until the end of the Ancien Régime
- End of the 17th century : Jacques-Marie de La Baume became Baron de Lugny
- Start of 18th century : Melchior-Esprit de La Baume, son of the preceding, became Baron de Lugny
- 1740 : Florent-Alexandre-Melchior de La Baume (born 1736), Count of Montrevel, son of the preceding, becomes the last lord of Lugny; he was put to death in ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1794.
French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
- 1789, the Château de Lugny, in the 18th century used as a simple hunting lodge by the counts of Montrevel, was the first in the MâconnaisMâconnaisThe Mâconnais district lies in the south of the Burgundy wine region in France, west of the River Saône. It takes its name from the town of Mâcon. It is best known as a source of good value white wines made from the Chardonnay grape; the wines from Pouilly-Fuissé are particularly sought-after....
to be burned by the «Brigands» – rebelling peasants – when the troubles of The TerrorReign of TerrorThe Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
, at the end of July, stirred up this region (night of Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 July 1789). Dubost, curate of the neighbouring parish of Bissy-la-MâconnaiseBissy-la-MâconnaiseBissy-la-Mâconnaise is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France.-References:*...
wrote « La flamme était si grande entre une et deux heures de la nuit que j’aurais pu lire à ma fenêtre à la lueur du feu. »
More recent
- Having lost their agricultural function after the disasters at the time of the French revolution, the buildings which resisted the fire were used initially for cotton-spinning (first half of the 19th century), and thereafter as successively the gendarmerie and, around 1910, the presbytery (which remained there until the middle of the 1980s).