Château des Capponi

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château des Capponi stands in Combronde, in the Puy-de-Dôme. The present residence dates from the eighteenth century and succeeds an older dwelling, first attached to the house of Apchon and then, in 1220, to the Dauphins of Auvergne; the official record notes no remains of this earlier state and attributes the whole to the Capponi family, who settled in the marquisate in 1764. The plan is that of a rectangular main building, each end marked by a pavilion one storey taller. The north façade opens onto a courtyard closed to the west by former outbuildings; the south façade overlooks a garden that has lost part of its area since the Revolution. The interior, heavily reworked in the nineteenth century, relies on decorative plasterwork: ironwork (balconies, the banister of the grand staircase), moulded woodwork, stucco and parquet de Versailles. Sold as national property during the Revolution, the building became the administrative centre of the commune; it now belongs to the commune and houses the town hall. The Ministry of Culture regards it as representative of eighteenth-century aristocratic residences in Auvergne.