Château du Poutyl

En un regard

Le château en bref

On the banks of the Loiret, at Olivet, the Poutyl park preserves the memory of a château that no longer exists. In 1594, Pierre Fougeu d'Escures, intendant of the turcies et levées and later mayor of Orléans from 1613 to 1617, bought the clos du Poutil from the Galmet de Faronville family. He had built there a seigneurial residence overlooking the river from two large terraces: a main block of seven bays flanked by two pavilions, beneath steep roofs, extended by French formal gardens. An engraving by the topographer Claude Chastillon preserves its image. Local tradition holds that Henri IV and Marie de Médicis stayed there. The estate remained in the Escures family line until the nineteenth century; under the Empire, a pediment was added on the Loiret side. In 1828, its owner, Jean-Casimir de Gaillard d'Escures, nevertheless decided to demolish it; the property was subsequently divided, and a more modest house, the Petit-Poutyl, was built on one of the plots. The commune of Olivet acquired part of the estate in the early 1940s. The municipal park, covering about 1.7 hectares, today houses a small theatre, an open-air theatre, leisure facilities and cultural events.