Château de Beaulon

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château de Beaulon, in the former province of Saintonge, in the commune of Saint-Dizant-du-Gua, was built shortly after 1503 in a style transitional between Louis XII Gothic and the French Renaissance: its north façade features two contrasting dormers, one still Gothic, the other fully Renaissance, and a monumental "Italian-style" staircase is housed in a polygonal tower, following a type characteristic of western France rather than of Italy. A cylindrical dovecote of 1740, with 1,500 nesting holes served by a revolving ladder, completes the estate. Seized in 1591 by the Jesuits of Bordeaux for unpaid rents, the estate passed at the beginning of the 17th century to the Nesmond family, then in 1712 to Louis-Amable de Bigot and in 1833 to Charles-Henri Manès, before being acquired in 1965 by Christian Thomas, whose family carried out major restoration work. Surrounded by vineyards producing pineau and cognac, the 13-hectare park, awarded the "Jardin remarquable" (Remarkable Garden) label, combines a French formal garden with an English-style park planted with exotic species, including banana trees. The estate is also known for its Fontaines bleues (Blue Fountains), artesian springs (exsurgences) whose turquoise hue is due to microscopic algae, forming pools 10 to 18 metres deep at a constant temperature of 13°C, each bearing a name (Grande Fontaine, Miroir des fées, Fontaine de la Main rouge...). Listed as a historic monument in 1987, with a park pre-inventoried since 1990, the château has been open to the public for some forty years.