Origin and history
The castle of Menars, located in the Loir-et-Cher region of the Centre-Val de Loire, is an emblematic monument of the 17th and 18th centuries. Originally built as a gentilhommière by the Charron family, it is transformed into a majestic castle under the leadership of Jean-Jacques Charron, President of the Paris Parliament and brother-in-law of Colbert. The estate, erected as a marquisat by Louis XIV in 1676, even welcomed the Polish king in exile Stanislas Leszczynski between 1728 and 1732. Its architecture, marked by symmetrical wings and pavilions, reflects the influence of the great architects of the period, including Ange-Jacques Gabriel and Jacques-Germain Soufflot.
In 1760, the castle was acquired by the Marquise de Pompadour, the favourite of Louis XV, who undertook important work there. Gabriel adds two flat-roofed wings "in Italian" and sets up functional pavilions, such as that of the Horloge and the Méridien. At his death in 1764, the estate passed to his brother, the Marquis de Marigny, who continued the transformations with Soufflot, creating French gardens and picturesque factories, including a cave, an orangery and a rotunda housing a statue. The gardens, classified in 1986, are among the most remarkable in the region, with a 4 km driveway of lime trees, known as the longest in Europe.
In the 19th century, the castle changed hands several times, becoming the property of the Marshal of Empire Claude-Victor Perrin, Duke of Bellune, who organized sumptuous festivals there. In 1830 Prince Joseph de Riquet de Caraman-Shimay founded an educational institution there, the Prytanée, forerunner of vocational schools in France. After periods of decline and restoration, the castle was acquired in 1912 by Felix Allard, who modernized it and filled it with works of art. In the 20th century, it passed into the hands of the company Saint-Gobain, then of the businessman Edmond Baysari, who invested heavily in it before its resale in 2022.
The architecture of the castle, although redesigned, retains an elegant simplicity, with a central 17th century body and additions from the 18th century. The interiors house woodwork designed by Gabriel, fireplaces decorated with mirrors, and a gallery created in 1912. The gardens, redesigned by Marigny, blend with the French, a desert decorated with a cave, and an English garden. Among the notable elements are a pendulum of Sèvres commissioned for Menars, today at the Louvre, and statues scattered over the centuries, some of which have been replaced by copies.
The castle of Menars, although private property and rarely open to the public, remains an exceptional testimony of the art of living with French, combining political, architectural and landscape history. Its course, marked by figures like Colbert, Pompadour or Soufflot, makes it an emblematic place of the heritage of the Loire castles, protected and restored for future generations.
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