Château de Talcy

Château de Talcy: in the court

The Château de Talcy lies on the left bank of the Loire River, in the Loire Valley, famous for its 16th-century châteaux. It was commissioned toward 1520 by Bernardo Salviati, a Florentine banker with connections to the Medici family. The château, which is imbedded in the village to one side, where the village church forms one side of the courtyard, is more Gothic in its vernacular feeling that might be expected in a structure built for an Italian patron at the height of the Renaissance.

History

The estate is better known in literary rather than architectural history. Salviati's daughter and granddaughter, Cassandre and Diane, were the muses of two leading French poets of the time, Pierre de Ronsard and Théodore-Agrippa d'Aubigné, respectively. Ronsard fell in love with the 15-year-old Cassandre in 1552, during his stay at Talcy. He dedicated to her some of the best known sonnets in the French language. D'Aubigné, a neighbour of the Salviati, composed for Diane in 1571 the collection of sonnets, ballads, and idylls entitled Le Printemps and at her death the finest of his poems, Les Tragiques.

Vegetable garden at Talcy

Among the outbuildings preserved from the 16th century are a presshouse and a dovecot; there is also a traditional vegetable garden. In the château is the "chambre de la Médicis" where Catherine de' Medici and her son Charles IX are said to have planned the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew's Day during the "conference of Talcy" 28 and 29 June 1572.

Restored dining room.

The Salviati retained the ownership of the estate until 1682. Henceforth it passed through a succession of owners, including Philipp Albert Stapfer. In 1932 it was sold to the state, on condition that the 18th-century interiors would be preserved intact. The château is visited by 20,000 tourists annually.[1]

References

• Robert de Laroche, Catherine Bibollet. Châteaux, parcs et jardins en vallée de la Loire. Paris: Renaissance du livre, 2003.

External links

• Talcy: historique (French)

Coordinates: 47°46′11″N 1°26′40″E / 47.76972°N 1.44444°E / 47.76972; 1.44444