Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de Charnes, located in Marigny in the department of the Allier (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), is a composite building dating back to the late 15th century. It presents itself as a typical Bourbonnais gentilhommière, marked by a body of quadrangular houses flanked by square turrets with roofs with imperial roofs. The north turret retains a spiral staircase, a vestige of the primitive house probably dated the 16th century. Around the court of honor, there are remarkable outbuildings: a grain attic (a chestnut carpenter dated 1617), a chapel built in 1720, and a dovecote with 213 bolts. Outside, the lower courtyard housed a wooden pavilion, the Reserve, built on the foundations of a square tower at the end of the 15th century, as well as an old piece of water called the Canal, intended to water livestock.

The present castle is mainly the result of a construction campaign at the beginning of the seventeenth century, with major expansions in 1812 (east wing, west gate, south shed) and the development of a French garden in 1840. A second pond was added in 2005, complementing landscaped areas that also include a walled orchard. The history of the estate has been linked to the family of Froment since 1696, when Jean-Baptiste Legros, Master of Waters and Forests, acquired it. The property then passed by inheritance to his daughter, then to his granddaughter Gabrielle Rogier, wife of Jean Baptiste Alexandre de Froment in 1801. Ranked a historic monument in 1992, the castle is distinguished by its hybrid architecture and its preserved furniture, such as the Connétable's room, decorated with a door window and a monumental fireplace.

The elements protected by the 1992 inscription include the castle and its outbuildings (gate house, sheds, pigeon house, honorary courtyard, chapel with its decor), as well as the gardens, terraces, orchards and pond. The site, open to visit in summer, offers shows and concerts, perpetuating a tradition of cultural animation. The exact location of the castle, one kilometer north of the village of Marigny in the direction of the forest of Bagnolet, offers a preserved landscape, between ponds, orchards and terraced gardens, reflecting the architectural and social evolutions of the region from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.

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