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Origin and history

Saulières Castle, located in Saint-Pérère in the Nièvre (Bourgogne-Franche-Comté), is a neoclassical building built in the late 18th century, built in 1786 by Jacques-Louis II de La Ferté-Meun, Viscount de Solière. It replaces an old seigneurial residence linked to the fief de Solier, mentioned from the thirteenth century. The Italianizing style and the successive terraces reflect the neo-Palladian influence, while medieval elements, such as a 16th century round tower, remain in the "old castle". The estate also includes a Gothic chapel (1858) and an 18th century drying hall.

The castle was built on a seigneurial land moving from Château-Chinon County to the Duchy of Nevers. As early as 1469, the seigneury of Solière, owned by families such as the Verrieres or the La Ferté-Meun, enjoyed rights of justice (low and medium). In the 13th century, Hugues de Verrières and his wife Agnes de Fontenay, lords of the place, chose their burial at the Abbey of Bellevaux. The present castle, a private property, preserves an 18th century interior decoration (woodlots, Indian fabrics) and a 19th century park, with a green theatre and a maze.

The chapel of the Woods, unfinished (1824), houses the tomb of Jacques-Louis II de La Ferté-Meun, a controversial revolutionary figure. His nephew, Fernand de La Ferté-Meun, sold the estate in 1840 to the Grangier family of La Marinière, then to the Counts of Azy. In the 19th century Georges du Pré de Saint-Maur added a family chapel (1859) and founded a nearby religious house. The castle, inscribed in the Historical Monuments in 1997 and 2005, illustrates the architectural and social evolution of a morvandelle seigneury, from crusades to the Revolution.

The 18th century commons, with their stables and orangery, complete the whole. The basket handle portal and the oval stone feeders bear witness to the attention paid to outbuildings. The drying hall, typical of the agricultural estates of the time, recalls the economic activity associated with the morvandelle forest. The park, designed in terraces, descends to a pond where a Gothic chapel overlooks the tomb of La Ferté-Meun, symbol of their local anchorage.

The interior of the castle, renovated in the 19th century, has lost its large staircase but retains remarkable rooms: the large living room (Dindian cloth), the billiard room (panoramic) and the dining room, protected since 1997. The stained glass windows of the chapel, signed "A. Lusson, Paris 1859", and the woodwork reflect the eclectic taste of the owners. The estate, still owned by the descendants of the Earl of Azy, remains a preserved example of neo-classical architecture in rural areas.

The old castle, partially in ruins, preserves a round tower of the sixteenth century, former dovecote, and remains of the seigneurial enclosure. The fence walls and orangery, registered in 2005, define a space where medieval history and lighting arrangements combine. The pilori, a neighbouring place, recalls the seigneurial rights exercised until the Revolution, during which time Jacques-Louis II of La Ferté-Meun, although revolutionary, was perceived as a "hard and fearsome" man by the local population.

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