Château de la Grillière

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château de la Grillière is located in the commune of Monétay-sur-Allier, in the Allier department. It was built at the end of the 19th century, between 1892 and 1899, on the site of a demolished former manor house, at the request of Stephen Durieu de Lacarelle on his return from Scotland. The works were directed by the architect Jean Moreau and then, from 1899, by his son René Moreau. The building, in red brick and with an asymmetrical plan, reflects the Anglicising taste of the 1900s. It features a monumental Renaissance-style staircase in pink marble, completed in 1895, drawing rooms separated by Corinthian columns and adorned with stucco work and 18th-century-inspired wood panelling, a library-smoking room with a mezzanine gallery, and a dining room with panelling bearing mythological decoration. Some elements of the interior decoration come from the Châteaux de Logères and de Montriboux. The sculptures are the work of Thiébaud (1895–1898) and the decorative paintings are by the painter Detanger. The park was redesigned at the same time in a similar spirit. The château, together with several of its rooms (smoking room, library, dining room, drawing rooms, monumental staircase and entrance hall) and its outbuildings, was registered and then listed as a historic monument in 1988 and 1990. It remains private property today.