A 19th-century Palladian chateau, to be restored, with annexes, wooded grounds and a swimming pool, on the border of the Corrèze et Cantal departments
A 19th-century Palladian chateau, to be restored, with annexes, wooded grounds and a swimming pool, on the border of the Corrèze et Cantal departments.
In Auvergne, on the border of the Corrèze and Cantal departments, the chateau is located along the edge of a village and separated from the Dordogne River by a 13-hectare field. Featuring panoramic views from its northern exterior of the surrounding landscape dotted with fields, natural meadows, wooded hillsides and even a portion of the basalt organs of Bort-les-Orgues, the closest shops and services essential for daily life are accessible in a matter of minutes: Bort-les-Orgues and Ydes are less than 8 kilometres away, while Neuvic, Egletons and Ussel, each with a train station, are between 25 and 50 kilometres away. In addition, the A89 motorway, in approximately 30 kilometres, provides easy access to Bordeaux and Lyon, whereas Clermont-Ferrand and Brive-la-Gaillarde, 90 and 115 kilometres away, respectively, with their international airports, ensure fluid connections with the rest of the country as well as foreign destinations.
Seen from above, the chateau's footprint is a reminder that it was built below the vestiges of a fortified castle constructed around 1470, which once belonged to the same family. Located on the outskirts of the village and nestled within a verdant setting, from its entrance gate, a lane skirts the grounds' immense expanses of lawn before arriving at the chateau. Steeped in the heritage of French Palladian dwellings from the early 19th century, when Palladio's influence was combined with local classicism, the use of carefully dressed blonde stone and the regularity of the stonework conveys the desire to make the building as durable as possible, according to a rational architectural ideal, while its white louvred shutters help lighten the chateau's overall and impressive heft.
Surrounded by a wide array of tall trees: limes, thuyas, beeches and different resinous varieties, directly opposite the chateau, several metres from the swimming pool and skirting a portion of the wall that separates the property from a private drive, a perennial flowerbed is planted with rosebushes in an array of shimmering colours. In addition, a barn, adjacent to the chateau, is used as a garage and the machine room for the swimming pool, while the grounds include a variety of different spaces, such as a vegetable garden, a piece of land zoned for construction and four agricultural parcels with two barns, each with 400 m². Lastly, a small 16th-century manor house, set back at a distance next to the grounds' southern entrance, with its own garden and a central staircase tower that provides access to all its floors, as well as two grassy plots, directly opposite, can be purchased at an additional price.
The ChateauThe chateau's three-storey southern exterior, cadenced by seven vertical rows of windows, is symmetrically arranged around a central row of windows, which is, in turn, crowned with a triangular pediment and decorated with an oculus, recalling ancient temples, while half-columns with ionic capitals and two wrought-iron balconies evoking Palladian loggias - a transitional space between the interior and exterior - highlight its massive heft.
With a typical symmetrical composition endowing the whole with a naturally balanced and patrician appearance, above the three central windows on each upper floor, arched fanlights are decorated with geometrical and scroll motifs, whereas, on the ground floor, three arcades cadence the main façade and bring to mind Palladian porticoes. Combining functionality and aesthetics, this series of archways creates a shaded intermediary zone between the chateau's interior and its grounds, while the chateau's roof illustrates how the French adapted the Palladian style to the local climate and traditions. Featuring ...
