Château de Cormatin
CastleHidden Gem
The Château de Cormatin is situated in the commune of Cormatin in Saône-et-Loire, set upon an island in the river Grosne. Built in the early seventeenth century, it retains rare original features, among them its grand staircase and the decorative schemes of several of its rooms.
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History
Rising from the heart of southern Bourgogne, between Cluny and Tournus, the Château de Cormatin ranks among the finest Renaissance and Louis XIII residences in the region — a testament to an aristocratic art de vivre carried to its zenith in the seventeenth century. Its warm blonde stone façades, water-filled moats and two wings framing a majestic cour d'honneur compose an unforgettable silhouette, reflected in perfect stillness by the Grosne. What renders Cormatin truly singular is the exceptional preservation of its interior apartments — most notably the chambre de sainte Jeanne de Chantal and the cabinet de Madame, whose coffered ceilings gilded in gold leaf and painted wainscoting stand among the rarest intact examples of Louis XIII interior decoration to survive in France. Nowhere else may one contemplate, with such undiminished authenticity, the refined intimacy that characterised the great nobility of Louis XIII's reign. The guided tour draws visitors into the hushed atmosphere of the grand galleries, state rooms and antechambers adorned with polychrome woodwork. Collections of furniture, paintings and objets d'art evoke with remarkable precision the daily life of seventeenth-century lords, whilst the monumental spiral staircases and tall pedimented dormers bear witness to architectural mastery of the highest order. Beyond the walls, the château is embraced by a park of several hectares, where the formal French gardens — painstakingly restored in recent years — unfurl their intricate broderies of box hedging and clipped charmilles laid out in strict accordance with the canons of classical French horticulture. A verdant maze, avenues of century-old lime trees and a Renaissance dovecote complete this quietly timeless promenade. Cormatin captivates the devotee of history and architecture as much as the traveller in search of authenticity and tranquillity. Its pastoral setting, the gentle quality of the Burgundian light and the distinction of its collections make it an unmissable stage on any journey between Mâcon and Chalon-sur-Saône.
Architecture
The Château de Cormatin belongs to the tradition of the moated château of the first half of the seventeenth century, heir to the French Renaissance whilst heralding the Louis XIII style in its sobriety and regularity. The U-shaped plan, comprising a central corps de logis and two wings set at right angles framing an open cour d'honneur, is characteristic of this period of transition. The façades of honey-coloured limestone, articulated by regular bays of mullioned windows and crowned by tall rooflines punctuated with dormers bearing alternating triangular and curvilinear pediments, lend the whole an assured and measured elegance. The pepper-pot towers at the corners and the water-filled douves encircling the château introduce a medieval, defensive note that contrasts most agreeably with the ornamental grace of the sculpted dormers and pediments. The interior spiral staircases, fitted with wrought ironwork balustrades of exceptional craftsmanship, rank amongst the building's finest architectural set pieces. Within, the first-floor apartments reveal gilt-leaf coffered ceilings, painted panelling adorned with arabesques, trophies and floral motifs, and chimneypieces surmounted by sculpted overmantels of a quality worthy of the great Parisian decorators of the age. The formal French gardens, restored in accordance with the principles of seventeenth-century topiary and box broderie, extend the architecture harmoniously into the landscape. An ornamental potager, a hornbeam maze and avenues of centuries-old lime trees complete this exceptional setting, in which architecture and nature converse according to an ordering inherited from the French classical ideal.
Related Figures
Antoine du Blé, marquis d'Huxelles — commanditaire de la construction du château vers 1605Jacques du Blé, 2e marquis d'Huxelles — continuateur des travaux et des décors intérieurs vers 1630-1640Nicolas du Blé d'Huxelles — maréchal de France et diplomate, négociateur des traités de Ryswick et d'Utrecht sous Louis XIVSainte Jeanne de Chantal — fondatrice de l'ordre de la Visitation, hôte du château dont une chambre porte le souvenirSaint François de Sales — associé à sainte Jeanne de Chantal, lié indirectement à l'histoire spirituelle du lieu
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