Château de Brochon

History

In the 14th century Duke Philip the Bold gave an estate at Brochon to the Carthusian order. In 1804 Étienne Liégeard, from an old Dijon family, bought part of the land. His son Jean-Baptiste, later mayor of Dijon, enlarged it, and in 1879 his grandson Stéphen Liégeard (1830 to 1925), a writer and former politician, completed the estate and decided to build a Renaissance-style château there.

Work began in 1895, soon after the phylloxera crisis had ruined many small growers, and Liégeard wanted the building site to give them work. The architects were Leprince and Perreau, and the landscape designer Eugène Bühler laid out the park. After Liégeard's son Gaston died unmarried in 1953, the State inherited the château under the terms of his will. It became a school annex in 1954 and an independent lycée in 1964.

Architecture

The château is L-shaped, with two main wings joined by a tall pavilion and dressed with towers and turrets. Its design borrows from the Loire: Azay-le-Rideau for the east front, Chenonceau for the arcades, Blois and Chambord for the chimneys and dormers. Inside, the decoration follows 18th-century styles. The great hall has a coffered ceiling, a life-size sculpted lion and stained glass by Édouard Didron.