Château de Bellenaves

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château de Bellenaves stands in the commune of Bellenaves, in the Allier department. A first building is said to have existed as early as the 11th century, founded by the lords of Bellenave on the remains of a Gallo-Roman villa. The square keep that survives dates mostly from the last quarter of the 14th century and from the 15th century; it retains a Romanesque portal and mullioned windows. The estate passed successively through the hands of several families: the Jehan, vassals of the Bourbons, until the 16th century, then, after the marriage of Charlotte de Bellenave to Blain Loup, the Rochechouart-Chandeniers (1646), Gillier (1675), Montmorency-Luxembourg (1696) and Pardaillan, Dukes of Épernon (1722). In the 18th century, Étienne-François Dutour de Salvert (1771) had the medieval keep joined to a newly built residential wing, with large windows and refined interior decoration, while preserving the layout and decorative features of the keep. An English-style park was laid out within the former fortified enclosure. During the Second World War, vaulted rooms of the castle sheltered stained-glass windows from Notre-Dame de Paris and the Sainte-Chapelle. The castle, privately owned since 1979 by Philippe Alfonsi and Princess Xenia Schirinsky-Schikhmatoff, has been registered as a historic monument (monument historique inscrit) since 12 February 2002. Its gardens are open to the public in summer.