Château de Beaulon

The Chateau de Beaulon is a privately-owned castle located in the town of Saint Dizant du Gua, in the Poitou-Charentes Department of France. The chateau and garden are open to the public. The garden is listed by the Committee of Parks and Gardens of the French Ministry of Culture as one of the Remarkable Gardens of France.

History

The chateau was built in about 1480 as a residence for the Bishops of Bordeaux. The present gardens were created beginning in 1942. The gardens suffered major damage from the storm of 1999, which knocked down hundreds of trees, but it has since been restored and replanted.

Description

The chateau has both a gothic and a renaissance facade. The park includes a French formal garden around the chateau, and an English landscape garden. A major feature of the park are the Fontaines Bleues, natural springs whose waters are an unusual color of blue. It also has a round dovecote with a conical roof, dating from 1740, with fifteen hundred nesting holes.

External links

• Official site of the Chateau de Beaulon
• Searchable list of all the gardens on the list, on the website of the Comité des Parcs et Jardins de France (French)