Château de Quincey

History

The first castle at Quincey, held directly from the dukes of Burgundy, dates from the 13th century, and in 1372 Girard de Quincey held the lordship. It was razed under Louis XI and rebuilt in 1487 by Claude Poinsot. On 23 November 1572, during the Wars of Religion, Protestant soldiers of the Duke of Zweibrücken pillaged and burned it, killing its owners, Jacques d'Orge and his wife Françoise Siclier.

In 1658 the young Louis XIV and his mother Anne of Austria were received here, a visit recalled by a plaque in the chapel. After a second fire in 1707, the château was rebuilt on the same foundations. In 1794 it was described as a square courtyard reached over a stone bridge, surrounded by a moat fed by the Meuzin river. Jean and Anne Coignard-Dollinger bought it in 1995 and restored it with a heritage architect.

Architecture

The château stands on a rectangular platform surrounded by moats on three sides. Around the main courtyard are the chapel, a square dovecote with about 2,000 nesting holes, the lodge and the house itself, with two main floors and an attic lit by decorated dormers. The south front, altered in the 19th century, has a Tuscan portico of four columns carrying a terrace above the park.