En un regard
Le château en bref
Château de Cordès overlooks the Sioulet valley at an altitude of 900 metres, on a spur of the Mont-Dore massif, in Orcival (Puy-de-Dôme). Sources place the origins of the fortress in the 13th century (1268) and the present building in the 15th century. The de Chalus family held it for nearly four centuries before selling it in 1659 to Emmanuel d'Allègre. His son, Yves de Tourzel, Marquis d'Allègre and future Marshal of France (1724), converted it into a country residence and, in 1695, commissioned the workshop of André Le Nôtre to design the gardens. The interior retains stucco decoration, painted woodwork, stone fireplaces and a terracotta tile floor. The hornbeam hedges, nearly five metres high, the semicircular forecourt with its lawned parterres dotted with box and yew, and the basins form a French formal garden, restored in 1965. The château is privately owned and serves as the setting for the novel Le Démon de midi by Paul Bourget (1914).