Château de Montmarin, Pleurtuit, France

Château de Montmarin was built in 1760 by Aaron Magon, Squire of the Château du Bosq. It is the only 'Malouiniè' (the typical 18th century summer résidence of rich ship-owners and merchants from Saint-Malo) to be located on th left bank of the Rance, with a magnificent panoramic view across the estuary. An Imposing classic gateway opens on to the Court of Honor ornemented by a splendid 18th century fountain in white Carrare marble. The restrained classicism of the entrance side of the housse is in striking conytrast with the fanciful Louis XV elegance of the main façade facing the Rance with its pavilions rooped in the shape open upturned.

The 6 hestares park is praised by the writers of the period, Madame de Genlis, and Chateaubriand, slopes gently down to the Rance in a series of terraces. In front of the house, the French formal garden, pratically unchanged since the day it was designed, overlooks the park, laid out in 1885 in the English style, with its historic trees, wide lawns, thickets, rock-garden, ans flowering borders.Each year, new varieties of plants and trees are added to already considerable collection.

References:

Chateaux France

User Reviews

Arnaud Deniel (3 years ago)
Un cadre merveilleux pour un mariage inoubliable. Tout le monde a pu profiter du jardin à la française et de la superbe vue Rance pendant le cocktail, ainsi que des balades dans les jardins le lendemain et de la visite du potager avec Thibault. Un grand merci à lui et à sa famille pour leur accueil et leur disponibilité. Je recommande vivement.

carine martin (3 years ago)
Magnifique endroit, très beaux jardins avec une vue imprenable sur la Rance. Merci Thibault pour votre accueil chaleureux. Votre potager est superbe !

Mael Hamon (3 years ago)
Nous nous sommes mariés en août 2008 à cet endroit. Les jardins étaient superbes et les invités pouvaient librement circuler. En revanche, l'endroit pour le cocktail était situé où il n'y a que des graviers ce qui rendait difficile la circulation avec des talons hauts. De plus, alors que nous étions en plein cocktail, les propriétaires avaient décidé de dîner sur leur terrasse qui donnait sur la réception sans égard pour notre évènement. Il nous a également été demandé de manière très désagréable et inutilement brutal à minuit de baisser la musique sous peine d'arrêter la soirée…Compte tenu du prix de la salle….nous avons été un peu choqués par cette manière de faire ! La salle de réception mériterait (mais peut-être cela a-t-il été fait depuis) d'être arrangée sur le plan esthétique. Heureusement, nous avions eu, ce jour-là, un temps merveilleux.

Briz Phtgrphy (3 years ago)
The best garden I have visited, far behind Versailles. La Rance gives it all its charm and the owners are really nice and friendly. I like to come again and again and rediscover the place at any season. If you are in the area I definitely recommend to visit. A must see! Went to a couple of parties there like wedding, this is the perfect place and all organisation was always excellent : food, drinks, music, location. I also recommend this place to throw a party in ideal, classy and lovely surroundings.

Pablo Gomez-Borbon (8 years ago)
Excellent. The prettiest gardens!

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Photo from Flickr, copyright Giåm

Historic Site of the week

Glimmingehus

Glimmingehus is the best preserved medieval stronghold in Scandinavia. It was built 1499-1506, during an era when Scania formed a vital part of Denmark, and contains many defensive arrangements of the era, such as parapets, false doors and dead-end corridors, 'murder-holes' for pouring boiling pitch over the attackers, moats, drawbridges and various other forms of death traps to surprise trespassers and protect the nobles against peasant uprisings. The lower part of the castle's stone walls are 2.4 meters (94 inches) thick and the upper part 1.8 meters (71 inches).

Construction was started in 1499 by the Danish knight Jens Holgersen Ulfstand and stone-cutter-mason and architect Adam van Düren, a North German master who also worked on Lund Cathedral. Construction was completed in 1506.

Ulfstand was a councillor, nobleman and admiral serving under John I of Denmark and many objects have been uncovered during archeological excavations that demonstrate the extravagant lifestyle of the knight's family at Glimmingehus up until Ulfstand's death in 1523. Some of the most expensive objects for sale in Europe during this period, such as Venetian glass, painted glass from the Rhine district and Spanish ceramics have been found here. Evidence of the family's wealth can also be seen inside the stone fortress, where everyday comforts for the knight's family included hot air channels in the walls and bench seats in the window recesses. Although considered comfortable for its period, it has also been argued that Glimmingehus was an expression of "Knighthood nostalgia" and not considered opulent or progressive enough even to the knight's contemporaries and especially not to later generations of the Scanian nobility. Glimmingehus is thought to have served as a residential castle for only a few generations before being transformed into a storage facility for grain.

An order from Charles XI to the administrators of the Swedish dominion of Scania in 1676 to demolish the castle, in order to ensure that it would not fall into the hands of the Danish king during the Scanian War, could not be executed. A first attempt, in which 20 Scanian farmers were ordered to assist, proved unsuccessful. An additional force of 130 men were sent to Glimmingehus to execute the order in a second attempt. However, before they could carry out the order, a Danish-Dutch naval division arrived in Ystad, and the Swedes had to abandon the demolition attempts. Throughout the 18th century the castle was used as deposit for agricultural produce and in 1924 it was donated to the Swedish state. Today it is administered by the Swedish National Heritage Board.

On site there is a museum, medieval kitchen, shop and restaurant and coffee house. During summer time there are several guided tours daily. In local folklore, the castle is described as haunted by multiple ghosts and the tradition of storytelling inspired by the castle is continued in the summer events at the castle called "Strange stories and terrifying tales".

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