TONNERRE, TANLAY AND ANCY-LE-FRANC
The origin of Tonnerre was due to a chateau-fort built here on the right
bank of the Armançon, surrounded by a groupment of huddling dwellings
which, in turn, were enclosed by a corselet wall of ramparts.
Tonnerre grew to its majority through the ambitions of a powerful line
of counts who made the original fortress which they constructed the
centre of a tiny capital of a feudal kingdom in miniature. From the
suzerainty of the Sennonais, of which it was a county, Tonnerre came to
bear the same title under control of the Burgundians, in whose hands it
remained until it passed to the house of Luvois.
Only skimpy odds and ends remain of Tonnerre's one-time flanking gates,
walls and towers. Its old chateau--which the counts invariably referred
to, and with reason doubtless, as a palace--has been rebuilt and
incorporated into the structure of the present hospital, itself a
foundation by Marguerite de Bourgogne and dating back to 1293. No doubt
many of the wards which to-day shelter the ill and crippled were once
the scene of princely revels.
In the nineteenth century the structure was further remodelled and put
in order, but it remains still, from an architectural point of view at
least, an admirable example of Renaissance building, though none of its
attributes to be seen at a first glance are such as are usually
associated with a great chateau of the noblesse of other days. At all
events its functions of to-day are worthy, and it is far better to
admire a mediæval chateau which has become a hospital than one which has
been transformed into a military barracks or a prison for thieves and
cutthroats, an indignity which has been thrust on many a grand old
edifice in France deserving of a better fate. To-day such a hard
sentence is seldom passed. The "Commission des Monuments Historiques"
sees to it that no such desecrations are further committed.
Within the hospice is the remarkably sculptured tomb of Marguerite de
Bourgogne; as remarkably done in fact as the better known ducal tombs at
Dijon, and those of the Église de Brou at Bourg-en-Bresse. The
workmanship of these elaborate sculptures is typical of that known as
the École de Dijon.
Tonnerre's most remarkable sight is neither its chateau, nor its
hospice, at least not according to the inhabitant. There is nothing to
the native more curious or interesting to see than the celebrated Fosse
Dionne (the Fons Dionysius of the ancients), a fountain which supplies
the city with an abundance of fresh water coming from no one knows
where, but spouting from the earth like a geyser, and with a sufficient
force to turn a couple of water-mills. An ordinary enough bubbling
spring is interesting to most of us, so that one enjoying an ancient and
mysterious reputation is put down as a local curiosity well worth coming
miles to see.
Half a dozen kilometres out from Tonnerre, on the road to
Châtillon-sur-Seine, is the Chateau de Tanlay, not known at all to the
travellers by express trains who are whisked by to Switzerland with
never as much as a slow-up or a whistle as they pass the little station
but a short distance from the park gates.
The Chateau de Tanlay is a superb relic of a sixteenth century work.
This was a period when architectural art had become debased not a
little, but here there is scarcely a trace of its having fallen off
from the best traditions of a couple of centuries before. It is this
fact, and some others, that makes Tanlay a sight not to be neglected by
the lover of old chateaux.
In the midst of a great flowered and shady park sits this admirable
edifice belonging to the descendants of the family of Coligny. It was
here, to be precise, that the Coligny and the Prince de Condé leagued
themselves together against the wily Catherine de Medicis and her crew,
and much bad blood was shed on both sides before they got en rapport
again.
The Chateau de Tanlay is perhaps the finest, certainly one of the most
monumental, chateaux of Burgundy. Frankly Renaissance, the best of it
dating from 1559, it was begun by Coligny d'Andelot, the brother of the
"Admiral."
One of the most notable of its constructive features is the imposing
Tour de la Ligue where, previous to that dread Saint Bartholomew's
night, the Colignys and the Prince de Condé and their followers plotted
and planned their future actions, and those of their associated
Ligueurs.
The Marquis de Tanlay, the present owner of the ancient lands of the
Courtneys of royal race, graciously opens the portal of the chateau that
the world of curiosity-loving folk who pass by may enter if they will,
and marvel at the delights within.
The "Terre de Tanlay" in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries belonged to the de Courtneys, by whom, it was sold to Louise
de Montmorency, the mother of the Huguenot Admiral of Henri IV. This
latter, in 1559, ceded it to another of her sons, François d'Andelot,
the Coligny who began the work of construction of the chateau forthwith.
In 1574 d'Andelot bequeathed the unachieved work to Anne de Coligny, the
wife of the Marquis de Mirabeau, who, still working on the original
plans, left it uncompleted at his death in 1630. His daughter Catherine
fell heir to the property, but sold it five years later to Porticelli
d'Hémery--Mazarin's Surintendant des Finances, who called in the
architect Lemuet to carry the work to a finish. This he did, or at least
brought it practically to the condition in which it stands to-day.
The name of Hémery did not long survive as chatelain of the property,
and the lands passed by letters patent to the Thévenin family,
its present owners, who were able to have the fief made into a
marquisat. The chateau fortunately escaped Revolutionary destruction
and to-dayranks as one of the most beautiful examples of the
Renaissance-Bourguignonne style of domestic architecture to be seen.
The edifice in its construction and exterior decoration shows plainly
its transition between the _moyen-age_ manner of building and that which
is considerably more modern. It is towered and turreted after the
defensive manner of the earliest times, and moat surrounded in a way
which suggests that the ornamental water is something more than a mere
accessory intended to please the eye. Entrance is had by a bridge over
this moat and finally into the Cour d'Honneur through a fortified
gateway, as pleasingly artistic in its disposition as it is effective as
a defence.
Chiefly, the chateau shows to-day d'Hémery's construction of the
seventeenth century, paid for, says one authority, by silver extorted
from the poor subjects of his king in the form of general taxes. This
may or may not be so, but as d'Hémery's wealth was quickly acquired only
when he had need of it to build this great chateau, it is quite likely
that some of it came from sources which might never otherwise have
produced a personal revenue.
Another distinct portion of the chateau is that arrived at through the
Cour d'Honneur, and known as Le Petit Chateau, a sort of distinct
pavillion, a beautiful example of late Renaissance work at least a
century older than the main fabric.
Though non-contemporary in its parts, the chateau taken entire is
intensely interesting and satisfying in every particular. Furthermore,
its sylvan site is still preserved much as it was in other days, and its
alleyed walks are the same through which strolled the Colignys and the
de Courtneys of old. No sacrilege has been committed here as in many
other seigneurial parks, where more than one virgin forest has been cut
down to make firewood, or perhaps sold to bring in gold which an
impoverished scion of a noble house may have thought he needed. One
avenue alone of this great park runs straight as the proverbial flight
of an arrow, only ending at the chateau portal after a course of two
kilometres straightaway.
The park in turn is enclosed by a wall nearly six kilometres long, and
the chief ornamental water is considerably over five hundred metres in
length, and merits well its appellation of Grand Canal. This water which
fills the moat and surrounds the chateau is not stagnant, but flows
gently from the Quincy to the Armançon after first enveloping the
property in its folds.
The greater portion of the structure, that of Lemuet, is imposingly
grand with its central _corps de logis_ and its two wings which advance
to join up with the extended members of the Petit Chateau, forming with
them the grand Cour d'Honneur, more familiarly known as the Cour Verte.
The actual entrance is known as the Portail Neuf (1547) and serves as
the habitation of the concierge. At the right is the imposing Tour de la
Ligue (1648) and to the left the Tour des Archives, each enclosing a
large spiral stairway and surmounted by a dome terminated with a
_lanternon_. At each end of the outer façade are two other towers, in
form more svelt than those in the courtyard.
In the vestibule within, as one enters the main building, are the marble
busts of eight Roman Emperors, of little interest one thinks in a place
where one would expect to find effigies of the former illustrious
occupants of the chateau. Various trophies of the chase are hung about
the walls of this corridor and are certainly more in keeping with the
general tone of things than the cold-cut visages of the noble Romans
before mentioned.
A gallery of mythological paintings opens out of the vestibule and leads
to the seventeenth century chapel, which contains a "Descent from the
Cross," by Peregrin, and other religious paintings of the Flemish
school. Distributed throughout the various apartments are numerous
paintings and portraits by Mignard, Nattier, Philippe-de-Champaigne, and
others, and some pastels by Quentin de la Tour.
The chimney-pieces throughout are notable for their gorgeousness; that
in the Chambre des Archevèques, at least a dozen feet high, is decorated
with two pairs of massive caryatides and other statuettes in relief. On
another is a carven bust of Coligny, the Admiral, with a cast of
countenance suggesting a sinister leer towards the statue of a sphinx
which is supposed to represent the features of Catherine de Medicis.
The paintings of the Tour de la Ligue, supposedly by Primataccio,
representing mythological divinities in the personages of the members of
the court of the Medicis, bespeak a questionable taste on the part of
the Colignys who caused them to be put there. It would seem as though
spite had been carried too far, or that the artist was given carte
blanche to run a riot of questionable fantasy for which no one stood
responsible. All these gods and goddesses of the court are, if not
repulsive, at least unseemly effigies. Catherine herself is there as
Juno, her son Charles IX as Pluto, the Admiral as Hercules, Guise as
Mars, and Venus, of course, bears the features of the huntress, Diane de
Poitiers.
About as far south from Tonnerre as Tanlay is to the eastward is
Ancy-le-Franc. It is in exactly the same position as Tanlay; its charms
are pretty generally unknown and unsung, but its sixteenth century
chateau of the Clermont-Tonnerre family is one of the wonder works of
its era. Rather more admirably designed to begin with than many of its
confrères, and considerably less overloaded with meaningless ornament,
it has preserved very nearly its original aspect without and within. The
finest apartments have been conserved and decorated to-day with many
fine examples of the best of Renaissance furnishings. This one may
observe for himself if he, or she, is fortunate enough to gain entrance,
a procedure not impossible of accomplishment though the edifice is not
usually reckoned a sight by the guide-books.
At present the Marquis de Clermont-Tonnerre holds possession of the
property, and keeps it up with no little suggestion of its former
magnificent state.
If not notable for its fine suggestive feudal nomenclature,
Ancy-le-Franc certainly claims that distinction by reason of the
memories of its chateau, which dates from the reign of Henri II. Nearly
three-quarters of a century were given to its inception. Of a unique
species of architecture, presenting from without the effect of a series
of squat façades, ornamented at each corner with a two storied square
pavillon, it is sober and dignified to excess. The interior arrangements
are likewise unique and equally precise, though not severe. The whole is
a blend of the best of dignified Italian motives, for in truth there is
little distinctively French about it, and nothing at all Burgundian.
[Illustration]
The structure was begun by the then ruling Comtes de Tonnerre in 1555,
and became in 1668 the property of the Marquis de Louvois, the minister
of Louis XIV, and already proprietor of the countship of Tonnerre which
came to him as a _dot_ upon his marriage with the rich heiress Anne de
Souvre.
The gardens and park, now dismembered, were once much more extensive and
followed throughout the conventional Italian motives of the period of
their designing. Enough is left of them to make the site truly enough
sylvan, but with their curtailment a certain aspect of isolation has
been lost, and the whole property presents rather the aspect of a
country place of modest proportions than a great estate of vast extent.
The Chateau de Ancy-le-Franc is commonly accredited as one of the few
edifices of its important rank which has preserved its general aspect
uncontaminated and uncurtailed. No parasitical outgrowths, or additions,
have been interpolated, and nothing really desirable has been lopped
off. With Chambord and Dampierre, Ancy-le-Franc stands in this respect
in a small and select company. Ancy-le-Franc is even now much the same
as it was when Androuet du Cerceau included a drawing of it in his great
work (1576), "Les Plus Excellents Bastiments de France."
He was an architect as well as a writer, this Androuet du Cerceau, and
he said further: "For my part I know no other minor edifice so much to
my liking, not only for its general arrangements and surroundings, but
for the dignified formalities which it possesses."
Comte Antoine de Clermont, Grand Maitre des Eaux et Forêts, built the
chateau of Ancy-le-Franc on the plans of Primataccio, probably in 1545,
certainly not later, though the exact date appears to be doubtful. That
Primataccio may have designed the building there is little doubt, as he
is definitely known to have contributed to the royal chateaux of
Fontainebleau and Chambord. For a matter of three-quarters of a century
the edifice was in the construction period however, and since
Primataccio died in 1570 it is improbable that he carried out the
decorations, a class of work upon which he made his great reputation,
for the simple reason that they were additions or interpolations which
came near the end of the construction period. This observation probably
holds true with the decorations attributed to the Italian at
neighbouring Tanlay. It may be that Primataccio only furnished sketches
for these decorations and that another hand actually executed them.
Historical records are often vague and indefinite with regard to such
matters. Again, since Primataccio was chiefly known as a
[Illustration: _Chateau of Ancy-le-Franc_]
decorator the doubt is justly cast upon his actually having been the
designer of Ancy-le-Franc. It is all very vague, one must admit that, in
spite of claims and counterclaims.
All things considered, this chateau ranks as one of the most notable in
these parts. The surrounding walls bathe their forefoot in the waters of
the Armançon and thus give it a defence of value and importance, though
the property was never used for anything more than a luxurious country
dwelling.
Built, or at any rate designed, by an artist who was above all a
painter, its walls and plafonds naturally took on an abundance of
decorative detail. For this reason the chateau of Ancy-le-Franc, if for
no other, is indeed remarkable. Two of its great rooms have been
celebrated for centuries among art-lovers and experts, the Chambre des
Fleurs, with its elaborately panelled ceiling, and that of Pastor Fido,
whose walls show eight great paintings depicting the scenes of a
pastoral romance. The Chambre du Cardinal contains a portrait of
Richelieu, and the Chambre des Arts is garnished most ornately
throughout. The monograms and _devises_ of the ceiling of the Chambre
des Fleurs suggest the various alliances of the Clermonts, but the
painted arms are those of the Louvois, who substituted their own
_marque_ for that of the Clermonts wherever it could readily be done.
[Illustration: _Monograms from the Chambre des Fleurs_]
The present Marquis de Clermont-Tonnerre has ably restored the chateau
of his ancestors and put the family arms for the great part back where
they belong. His arms are as follows: "_De gueules aux deux clefs
d'argent en sautoir avec la tiare pour cimier_." The motto is "_Etsi
omnes ego non_." These arms were originally conceded to Sibaut II de
Clermont by Pope Calixtus II in recognition of his having chased the
Anti-Pope Gregoire VIII from Rome in 1120.
In the Salle des Empereurs Romains are a series of paintings of Roman
Emperors which makes one think that Tanlay's sculptured Roman busts must
have set the fashion hereabouts or vice versa.
The Bibliothèque contains a remarkable folio showing plans and views of
the chateaux of Ancy-le-Franc and Tonnerre, the latter since destroyed
as we have found.
In the Chapel, dedicated to Sainte Cécile, are a series of admirable
painted panels of the apostles and prophets, a favourite religious
decorative motif in these parts, as one readily recalls by noting the
Puits de Moise and the tomb of the Burgundian dukes at Dijon, the
inspiration doubtless of all other similar works since.
The Grand Salon of to-day was once the sleeping apartment of Louis XIV
when one day he honoured the chateau with his presence.
A dozen kilometres south from Ancy-le-Franc is Nuits-sous-Ravières.
Nuits, curiously enough, a name more frequently seen on the wine-lists
of first class restaurants than elsewhere, here in the heart of
Burgundy, is supposedly of German origin. Its original inhabitants were
Germans coming from Neuss in Prussia, whose inhabitants are called
Nuychtons, whilst those of Nuits are known as Nuitons. Again, near
Berne, in Switzerland, is a region known as Nuitland, which would at
least add strength to the assertion of a Teuton origin for this smiling
little wine-growing community of the celebrated Cote d'Or.
Nuits possesses a minor chateau which to all intents and purposes
fulfils, at a cursory glance, its object admirably. It is a comfortably
disposed and not unelegant country house of the sixteenth century,
sitting in a fine, shady park and looks as habitable as it really is,
though it possesses no historical souvenirs of note.
A fortified gateway leads from the north end of the town towards
Champagne, Nuits being on the borderland between the possessions of the
Ducs de Bourgogne and those of the Comtes de Champagne.
[Illustration: BURGUNDY THROUGH THE AGES]