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Key figures

Origin and history

The château d'Hauterive is a pleasure house built in the 17th century on the heights of Issoire, in the Puy-de-Dôme. The bell of his chapel, dated 1653, attests to this period of foundation. The estate is distinguished by its spatial organization: a courtyard side, a bread oven, a press room, a wine cellar and a cooler; garden side, a terraced garden surrounded by boxwood, a flower garden and a "gourmet garden" extending over 7 hectares of groves. These spaces include remarkable landscape elements such as green cabinets, an e-mail, a ha-ha, a quinconce and charmille alleys.

In the middle of the eighteenth century, a document already describes the site as a place combining utility and pleasure, highlighting the beauty of its terraced gardens and its groves organized in alleys. In 1761 François Lecourt (1725–96), president of the Court of Aids of Clermont-Ferrand, acquired the land of Hauterive and took its name. He then began work on interior rehabilitation and roof restoration. The castle, which has remained in the Lecourt d'Hauterive family since that date, was listed as a historic monument on 30 September 1991, recognizing its heritage value.

The architectural and landscaped complex of the castle illustrates the evolution of aristocratic secondary residences in Auvergne, where the balance between agricultural function (vignes, vegetable garden) and aesthetic (gardens of pleasure) reflects the concerns of the provincial elites in the 17th and 18th centuries. The conservation of original developments, such as the cooler or the aisles of charmilles, bears witness to a practical and ornamental heritage, characteristic of the rural areas of Limagne d'Auvergne.

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