"A distinguished and absolutely
unique monument…" Those are the very words in the report
of the Commission Supérieure des Monuments Historiques describing
the château de Maulnes which "takes an important place
in the history of architecture and in the history of art. To lose it
would be an irreparable damage for the national heritage."
The book of Jacques Androuet du Cerceau "Les plus excellents Bastiments
de France", published in 1576, shows the château de Maulnes
with a semi-circular outbuilding, a connecting gallery and a huge garden
surrounded with walls and counterscarps. This project was probably never
finished.
Antoine de Crussol, duc d'Uzès and his wife Louise de Clermont,
comtesse de Tonnerre, very close friend of Catherine de Médicis,
decided to build a hunting lodge at Maulnes (near Cruzy-le-Châtel,
in the Tonnerrois), in the heart of the forest.
A deal was made in May 6th, 1566 with a mason and a carpenter to see
the plans given by the builder. The château was finished before
1576, and inspired by Renaissance Italy.
A pentagon around a staircase.
The château
de Maulnes, the only one of its kind in France with its pentagonal outline,
is organised around a central staircase built around a well. It is thought
to be the work of Serlio, Italian architect of the Renaissance (who conceived
Ancy-le-Franc).
The only other pentagonal building known in Europe is in Verona, in Italy,
which shelters traces of frescos.
An extremely rare procedure.
In 1996, seeing that the
château was not properly maintained the state, through the Ministry
of Culture, applied a French law of December 31st, 1913, regarding
expropriation and retrocession to save this building.
The state, through the DRAC (Direction Régionale des Affaires
Culturelles) had the most urgent work made. In agreement with the
Ministry of Culture, the Conseil Général of Yonne decided
to buy the château to save it from ruin and oblivion.
