Château de Lignières

The Château de Lignières is a French château, located in the municipality of Lignières, in the département of Cher. It was built in 1654–1660 for the financier Jérôme de Nouveau to the designs of the French architect François Le Vau. It was designated a monument historique on 27 June 1935.

The feudal castle (château féodal) on the site was razed in 1653, and the property sold by Brichanteau to Jérome de Nouveau, Surintendant Général des Postes, who brought in the architect François Le Vau to design the new château. The contract was signed on 9 May 1654. Jérôme de Nouveau hired Michel [Le] Roy, a sculptor-contractor and master mason from Bourges, to supervise the work. François Le Vau constructed the new building on the foundations of the old and retained the old moat and its defensive wall (fausse braye). His designs for the château are preserved in four engravings by Claude Olry de Loriande.

The new corps de logis was built from 1654 to 1656. It was connected to two end pavilions by curved façades, similar to what architect François Mansart had done for the Château de Berny (1623) and his grand dessein for the Château de Blois (1635–1638), and which François Le Vau's older brother, the architect Louis Le Vau, would use later.

Text adapted from “Château de Lignières (Cher)” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Château de Lignières ranks #4,240 of 8,764 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #342 of the 675 mapped in France. Founded 1654, it is older than 27% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 672 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,555 times in the last 60 days, more than 61% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how France compares in the castle statistics.

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