By Château de Fougères-sur-Bièvre
Château of Fougères-sur-Bièvre
The three phases of construction, the builders
Built over three generations, the château, which now looks much as it did in 1520, had four principal builders.
1470-1480: Pierre de Refuge around
1520, Jean de Villebresme.
Around 1650, modernization of the façades
19th century, René Lambot
Extérieur médiéval et intérieur Renaissance
The château presents two faces: an entrance façade which looks gothic and particularly defensive…
and a façade on the entrance courtyard decorated in the Renaissance style (pilasters, foliated patterns and capitals).
The successive rearrangements which followed the first construction phase by Pierre de Refuge progressively changed the château’s appearance, introducing elements in the Renaissance style...
and eliminating others such as the moats and the drawbridge.
As examples of symbolic decorative elements, the two doors of the accommodation block at the end of the courtyard are topped with sculptures: on the right, two soldiers, on the left, angels bearing coats of arms and the effigy of Saint Michael defeating the dragon.
Fougères-sur-Bièvre castle, old photograph of the corner tower (1920) by Cadet PatrickChâteau de Fougères-sur-Bièvre
The spinning mill in the 19th century
The Lambot family acquired the château in 1738. René Lambot, the third heir of that name, had the idea of creating a spinning mill there which operated from 1813 to 1901. It enabled the building to escape the depredations of the Revolution and maintained life and work there.
The paddle-wheel in the chapel
When the château was transformed into a spinning mill, a paddle-wheel was installed in the chapel. The wheel was turned by the river Bièvre, supplying energy to a hydraulic turbine which set the machines in motion.
Some forty families worked in the spinning mill and lived in the château.
Throughout the period when the spinning mill was in operation, the workers and their families lived in the château in rudimentary conditions. When the sawmill closed, before 1911, the château continued to house needy families from the village until the French State acquired it.
Restoration in the 20th century
State acquisition
The château was classified as a historical monument in 1912 and was put up for sale after the stock market crash of 1929. The State acquired it in 1932.
The restoration work
A huge overall restoration campaign took place between 1934 and 1950, under the direction of Maurice Lotte, using local materials (sand from the Loire, tufaceous stone, Beauce stone). In respect of the monument and its identity, the work carried out erased some of the changes to the spinning mill.
This virtual exhibition has been put together by teams from the Centre des monuments nationaux, with the help of teams from the château de Fougères-sur-Bièvre, the support of teams from the images unit and coordination by the digital unit.
The images were taken from Regards - Banque d’images des monuments © Centre des monuments nationaux.
