Château de la Motte d'Anjoin
CastleHidden Treasure
Château de la Motte d'Anjoin, located in Anjouin (Indre), is a Renaissance château built in the 16th century. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- Castle
- Period
- Renaissance (16th century)
- Location
- Anjouin, Indre, Centre-Val de Loire
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.1893, 1.8000
- Mérimée Reference
- PA36000017
A discreet jewel in the Berry region, Château de la Motte d'Anjoin's asymmetrical 17th-century facades are set in an enclosed courtyard, surrounded by a moat and crowned by an elegant horseshoe-shaped staircase.
© Wikimedia Commons / Wikipedia
History
Nestling in the Berrichon bocage in the commune of Anjouin, on the borders of the Indre department, Château de la Motte d'Anjoin is one of those seigneurial manor houses that centuries have shaped with an almost stubborn discretion. Far from the splendour of the great châteaux of the Loire, it embodies a provincial nobility attached to its lands, sensitive to the architectural fashions of its time without ever sacrificing comfort to ostentation. What makes this place truly unique is the visible stratification of its history in the stone itself. In the asymmetry of the façades, the attentive visitor can see the trace of a building that was the product of several construction campaigns, part of which, the part covered in tiles, belongs to an earlier building that survived the great transformation of the seventeenth century. This coexistence of different time periods, rather than being masked, gives the château an authentic and moving character. The visit begins as soon as you approach the castle: the moats fed by running water, a remnant of the medieval defensive system, create a symbolic boundary between the ordinary world and the seigniorial enclosure. Crossing the curtain wall, guarded by its moat, prepares the way for the discovery of the main residence, at the end of its small paved courtyard. The horseshoe-shaped staircase leading up to the front door is in itself an invitation to travel back in time. The landscaped setting reinforces this sense of isolation from the past. The pond near the former farmyard reflects the silhouettes of the slate roofs, and the walled gardens that existed as far back as the 16th century bear witness to a long tradition of country living. The ensemble is reminiscent of the "good houses" described by Olivier de Serres at the turn of the 17th century: functional, elegant and deeply rooted in the land.
Architecture
Château de la Motte d'Anjoin as it stands today is the result of a building campaign in the early 17th century, with the tiled wing demolished before 1811. The main building, rectangular in plan, is set at the end of a small enclosed courtyard, in a layout that harks back to the organisation of the medieval fortified house while adapting it to the uses of a comfortable residence. A curtain wall - a low perimeter wall inherited from the medieval period - surrounds the complex, and the white-water ditches that run alongside it are one of the most spectacular features of the site. The facades of the dwelling, covered in slate in the tradition of the Berrichonne and Loire regions, bear witness to a persistent taste for asymmetry, a characteristic feature of architecture in the transition between the late Renaissance style and emerging Classicism. This irregularity, far from being a defect, reflects the complex history of the building and gives it a personality that entirely homogeneous constructions would not have. The most remarkable feature of the exterior composition is undoubtedly the horseshoe-shaped staircase leading up to the entrance door: both functional and decorative, it is reminiscent of the grand staircases of the châteaux of the Loire, but adapted to the scale of a provincial residence. The masonry, probably in local limestone with blond highlights, matches the soft tones of the Berrichon landscape.
Related Figures
Les chanoines de la Sainte-Chapelle de Paris (suzerains du fief, Moyen Âge - XVIIe siècle)Les seigneurs de Graçay (suzerains directs de la Motte d'Anjoin, XIVe-XVIIe siècle)Le seigneur bâtisseur du XVIIe siècle (reconstructeur de la demeure vers 1620-1650, identité non établie)Le propriétaire des Lumières (responsable de la démolition partielle entre 1756 et 1811)
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Château de la Motte d'Anjoin located?
Château de la Motte d'Anjoin is located in Anjouin, Indre department, Centre-Val de Loire region, France.
When was Château de la Motte d'Anjoin built?
Château de la Motte d'Anjoin dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Château de la Motte d'Anjoin open to visitors?
Château de la Motte d'Anjoin is currently closed to visitors.