Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de La Bourdaisière, located in Montlouis-sur-Loire in Indre-et-Loire, finds its origins in the 14th century with a fortress belonging to Marshal Jean I Le Meingre, dit Boucicaut, and then to his descendants. At the beginning of the 16th century, the estate came into the hands of Marie Gaudin, the favourite of François I, and her husband Philibert Babou, Superintendent of Finance. In 1520, they began the construction of a new Renaissance castle, preserving only a medieval tower. This place becomes famous for having seen Gabrielle d'Estrées, favorite of Henry IV, and her sisters, worth at the castle the nickname of "whore clapier" because of their reputation as courtesans.

In the 17th century, the castle changed hands several times, including the Gouffier families of Bonnivet, Rohan, and Albert de Luynes. In 1768, the Duke of Choiseul, rival of the Duke of Aiguillon, demolished much of the castle to deprive it of sight from its own estate. The stones are reused to build Chanteloup Castle. During the Revolution, the estate, then owned by the Duke of Penthièvre, was seized as a national property and sold in 1794 to Armand-Joseph Dubernad, who began his reconstruction.

In the 19th century, Baron Joseph Jérôme Hilaire Angellier completed the reconstruction in a neo-Renaissance style, preserving elements of the 16th century such as the commons and the chapel. The castle, inscribed in the historical monuments in 1947 for its commons, moats, chapel and Renaissance gate, was acquired in 1991 by the princes of Broglie. They develop a biodiversity laboratory, including a conservatory of 800 varieties of tomatoes, a garden of dahlias (Dahliacolor), and an agroecological microfarm. The 55-hectare park, designed with the assistance of landscapers Edouard and René-Edouard André, also houses remarkable species such as cedars and redwoods.

The castle also served as a cinematic setting, notably for La Princesse de Clèves in 1961. After periods of abandonment and military occupation during the Second World War, it is today a place dedicated to the preservation of plant heritage and agricultural innovation, while remaining an architectural testimony of the Renaissance and neo-Renaissance eras.

Future

The Château de la Bourdaisière Park is a 55-hectare enclosed park, including the Potager Conservatoire de la Tomate, the Dahliacolor, the Capitular de Charlemagne and the Liliana Motta Garden.

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