User Reviews
In the 11th century a fortress belonging to Hugues de Champchevrier stood in place of the current Château de Champchevrier. It passed by marriage to different families: the Laval, the Bastarnay, and then the Daillon in 1550. On the ruins of the fortress, the Daillons rebuilt a Renaissance castle, whose mullion windows you can still see.
Henri de Daillon had no son so his nephew, Antoine, Duke de Roquelaure, a Marshal of France, inherited the castle in 1686. He built courtyards, gardens and moats all around the castle. Antoine de Roquelaure had no son either and as his wife preferred the court of Versailles to Champchevrier, he sold the castle in 1728 to Jean-Baptiste Pierre Henri de la Rüe du Can. The new owner was made Baron of Champchevrier by Louis XV in 1741 by letters patent which made the Champchevrier estate into a barony. The present owners are his direct descendants and so the same family has owned the castle for nearly three centuries.
The first baron built the terrace on the East side (first half of the 18th century). He was very committed to improving the estate and created the fine views from all sides of the castle towards the surrounding forest.
Today Château de Champchevrier is open to the public and hosts events.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.