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Origin and history

Château de Châtillon-Coligny, originally called Château de Châtillon-sur-Loing, dominates the Loing Valley from a plateau. Originally, it was a castrum of the Counts of Blois, mentioned in 1059 as a simple wooden tower. In the 12th century, the land passed into the hands of the Champagne family, which erected around 1180 a stone dungeon by Stephen I of Sancerre. In 1209 the Collège Saint-Pierre was founded, and in 1359 Louis de Melun extended the fortifications around the castle and the lower town.

In the 15th century, the estate was acquired by the Coligny family. John III of Coligny ordered around 1464 a terrace above the present orangery and a body of building made of horse iron. The site has its peak in the 16th century under Gaspard II de Coligny, admiral of France, who built a north gallery decorated by Le Primatice and Jean Goujon, as well as an orangery and a carved well. During the Wars of Religion, the castle was partially destroyed after the Saint Barthélemy (1572), although demolition work was quickly interrupted.

In the 17th century, Gaspard III de Coligny embellished the castle with paintings by Duchemin, while Gaspard IV, after his abjuration of Protestantism in 1645, erected a Duchy-Payrie and added pavilions and gardens. The site declined in the 18th century: in 1798, the castle was partially demolished to sell its materials. In the 19th century, Charles Emmanuel de Montmorency-Luxembourg bought the ruins and built in 1854 the current house in an old commune. Today, the medieval dungeon, Renaissance orangery, well and house remain.

The castle has been protected as historical monuments since 1930 (terraces and orangery) and 1949 (danjon and well). Its gardens, structured in the Renaissance and redesigned in the 17th century, were organized around a large central parterre, in harmony with the fortified city and the lower courtyard. Orangery, one of the oldest in France, and the remains of the dungeon bear witness to its historical and architectural importance.

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