Château la Grillère

En un regard

Le château en bref

In the heart of the Sologne, in the commune of Vouzon, the Château de la Grillère is a complex of rose-coloured brick built in the 16th century and remodelled in the 19th, set on piles in the middle of a moat fed by the Canne stream. Its main body is flanked by two towers, while a chapel occupies a round tower opened by a gallery; pseudo-pilasters punctuate the façade. From 1500, Guillaume III de Beauharnais, of an Orléans family from which Napoleon III descended, was lord of the estate, and local tradition holds that Joan of Arc stayed here on 2 March 1429. The Comte de Choiseul-Gouffier, ambassador to Constantinople, owned the estate from 1784 to 1791 before emigrating to Russia. Napoleon III acquired it in 1852, as part of his policy of draining the Sologne, which encouraged the digging of the Sauldre canal. Restored since 2008, the château is a private property and is not open to visitors.