Château des Tours-Portabéraud

En un regard

Le château en bref

At Mozac, near Riom, the Château des Tours-Portabéraud, known as the Folie Mercier, is a seventeenth-century seigneurial residence remodelled in the eighteenth century to plans by the architect Legay. It illustrates the ‘folie’ built by the notables of Riom: a pleasure residence set within gardens. At the end of the eighteenth century, the park, probably laid out by Attiret, received terracotta statues, of which few examples survive. The chapel retains gypseries and naïve paintings, while the gate and the garden staircase bear eighteenth-century wrought-ironwork from Auvergne. Around 1840 the roof was rebuilt in the Mansart style; around 1910 a small wing abuts the north façade; around 1930 the chapel ceiling was redone. The protected ensemble comprises the château, chapel, outbuildings, a seventeenth-century pavilion, boundary walls, gardens and five statues.