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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Selles-sur-Cher came into being at the end of the 10th century, when Thibaud I of Blois, said the Tricheur, had a wooden dungeon erected near the Cher to protect the monks of the Abbey from Norman attacks. Towards the year thousand, his descendants, Thibaut II and Eudes II of Blois, attributed the seigneury to two faithful: Humbaud I the Tortu (Lord of Vierzon) and Geoffroy I of Donzy, the ancestors of the future owners. This first building was destroyed in 1194 by Richard Lion's Heart during the absence of Raoul II from Mehun, who had gone on a crusade, leaving only the main tower.

In 1212, Robert de Courtenay-Champignelles, grandson of Louis VI and member of the Capetian house of Courtenay, rebuilt the castle with three towering towers and a guard house. The site remained in the family of Courtenay until 1288, before passing into the hands of Chalon-Auxerre-Tonnerre for three centuries, through complex marriage alliances. The Husson-Tonnerres then the Clermont-Tonnerre inherited it, until its sale in 1593 to Charles de Goyon de Matignon and Leonore d'Orléans-Longueville. By 1604 Philippe de Bethune, brother of Minister Sully, acquired the estate for 93,000 pounds and had the seigneury built in 1621.

In the 17th century, the architect Jacques II Androuet du Cerceau redesigned the north and south pavilions, the main entrance and interiors of the medieval castle for Philip of Bethune. The castle then changed hands several times: the Bret de Flacourt (intendants of Provence and Brittany), the Bourdonnaye-Blossac, then the Marquis de Bartillat in the 19th century. Major restorations took place in 1913 under Pierre Chauvallon, after the destruction of the West Gallery in 1813. In 2012, Michel Guyot and Noémi Brunet bought the castle to open to the public, before its resale to Nicolas Mazzesi and Katherine Wu, who developed innovative tourism activities, such as virtual reality tours.

The architecture of the castle combines two distinct periods: a medieval part to the west (XIIIth century), with a castle fortified between two towers, and a Renaissance wing (early XVIIth) characterized by brick and stone pavilions. The Tour du Coq, a 13th century vestige, dominates the forecourt bounded by moat. Inside, only the Philippe de Béthune Pavilion is visitable, recently refurbished with reproductions of paintings and period woodwork. The gardens, redesigned in the 18th century, house a three-hundredth-year-old Lebanese cedar, labeled Abre remarque de France in 2016.

The castle was listed as a Historic Monument in 1985, after a first inscription in 1926. Private property, it now hosts festivals (such as Geek Faëries), filming and cultural events. Its history reflects the feudal rivalries between Blois and Anjou, then the influence of the great royal and ministerial families, from Courtenay to Bethune, through the stewards of the Old Regime. The successive restorations, especially those of 1913 and the 21st century, preserved this witness of architectural transformations between the Middle Ages and the modern era.

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