Château de Beauregard

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · LOIR-ET-CHER

The Château de Beauregard stands in Cellettes, in the Loir-et-Cher, about ten kilometres south of Blois. A manor house was built here at the end of the 15th century by the Doulcet family. Jean du Thier, who bought it in 1545, was its true Renaissance builder and brought in foreign artists for the interior decoration, notably the Cabinet des Grelots panelled by Francesco Scibec da Carpi. Paul Ardier, owner from 1617, commissioned between 1620 and 1638 the famous Gallery of Illustrious Men: 26 metres long, it gathers 327 painted portraits tracing the political history of France from 1328 to 1643, above a floor of nearly 5,500 Delft earthenware tiles. Listed as a historic monument in 1840, the château is now open to the public eight months a year and welcomes around 20,000 visitors annually; its 70-hectare park includes the Garden of Portraits created by Gilles Clément in 1992.