History
article | Reading time5 min
Located in the Berrichonne countryside, Château de Bouges is a surprisingly elegant, natural setting!
A little history
Recorded as early as the 10th century, the land of Bouges is a rural seigneury with a fortified castle.
It wasowned by a succession of families, including the Medici family from 1416 onwards. In 1547, having become Queen of France, Catherine de Médicis offered half the Bouges lands to her advisor and first butler, Jean-Baptiste Seghizo, who managed to reconstitute the entire estate through purchases and exchanges in 1565.
In 1570, he sold Bouges to one of his nephews, Marc Antoine, with the agreement of Catherine de Médicis.
© Pascal Lemaître / Centre des monuments nationaux
The birth of the château
Claude Charles François Leblanc de Marnaval (1720 - 1803) was master of the forges at Clavières and director of the Royal Cloth Factory in Châteauroux. His fortune grew considerably, enabling him to purchase "Le Lieu, Château, Terre, Seigneurie et Justice de Bouges...".
But the owner's lavish tastes didn't suit the old house. He had it demolished and replaced it with the present château, an Italian-style construction built between 1759 and 1773 in keeping with the luxuries of the time, an elegant "folly" displaying the ambition of the wealthy owner, but at considerable expense.
The château is reminiscent of the Petit Trianon at Versailles. It takes the form of a rectangular pavilion set on a pedestal that allows light into the basement. It comprises 58 rooms on a surface area of around 1,400 m², and is built on three levels with two entresols, marked on the facades by a slight eaves crowned by a pediment.
The pediment on the east facade features the coats of arms of Charles de Marnaval and Gaudard de la Verdine, his wife's family. A wrought-iron balcony supported by four brackets occupies the second floor of the fronts of the two main facades (east and west). The side façades are narrower. A cornice runs all around the building, topped on either side of the pediments by a balustrade concealing the flat pavilion roof. The south facade of the château overlooks the courtyard of the outbuildings, which is set well below the park.
This elegant folly was costly, and his business success was short-lived: ruined, Claude Leblanc de Marnaval sold the property in 1779.
The 19th century saw a succession of buyers. Among them was the Prince de Talleyrand, who acquired the château in 1818 for his niece by marriage, the Duchesse de Dino, and owned it until 1826. The Dufour family, who took over ownership in 1857, made a number of alterations to the buildings, with the help of departmental architect Alfred Dauvergne, and to the gardens, with the assistance of landscape gardeners Henri and Achille Duchêne.
© Yann Monel / Centre des monuments nationaux
The Viguier era
In 1917, the château was sold to Henry Viguier, director of a Paris department store, BHV, and his wife Renée, from a wealthy drapery family. The château was virtually empty. The new owners brought it back to life, acquiring exceptional furnishings in harmony with the setting. They modernized the château with electricity, heating and running water.
In acquiring Bouges, Henry Viguier devoted himself to his passion for horses. Horses were an integral part of all the estate's activities: hunting, riding, carriage driving, venery and supplies for the château. As president of the Cercle de l'Étrier and owner of a racing stable, he brought together the very best in equipment, harness and carriages, and put them at the service of the most elaborate equestrian practices. The result is an equestrian collection of great unity, which together with the estate and château forms a highly coherent whole of great heritage interest.
The château is surrounded by80 hectares of greenery , with a pond reflecting a variety of trees (tulip trees, American red oaks, liquidambars) producing colorful, nuanced foliage in every season.
The winding pathways offer a variety of views of the château along the way.
Renée Viguier had a preference for flowers, hence the recurrence of these motifs in the château's interior decoration. The couple had the existing kitchen garden transformed into a flower garden(the jardin bouquetier), while the large greenhouse was given over to exotic plants. They also had the plant compositions of the English park and the French gardens created by the Duchenes under the occupation of the previous owners restored.
In 1967, with no descendants, the couple bequeathed the estate and its collection to the Caisse nationale des monuments historiques et des sites (now the Centre des monuments nationaux). Henry Viguier's wish was for the estate to be open to the public, and for the proceeds to be used for its upkeep and restoration.
© Reproduction Jean-Luc Paillé / Centre des monuments nationaux