Château de Montculot

History

Montculot began as a 15th-century castle. From 1751 it was enlarged, and the work was still unfinished when Louis-François de Lamartine bought the estate in 1760. He decorated the interior and laid out the gardens, with water features fed by springs from the surrounding hills. His nephew, the future poet Alphonse de Lamartine, first came to stay in 1801 and returned often.

Alphonse inherited Montculot on his uncle's death in 1826 and continued to improve it, but he had to part with it only five years later, in 1831. Today the château belongs to a private company. In 2003 the whole château, its gate and the grounds of its park and garden were listed as a historic monument, recognising both the house and its setting.

Architecture

The house is rectangular, with a ground floor, an upper floor and attics under a broken mansard roof, and a wing set at a right angle holds the former chapel. Inside, the rooms keep 18th-century panelling and marble fireplaces. Early 16th-century mouldings survive in the square tower beside the main block, and a large dovecote stands near the house.