After
numerous war years among Protestants and catholic, the peace settled
finally down in the realm of France. Some years previously, in
1576 , by an edict of pacification, Henri III had rehabilitated
the memory of Gabriel Ier de Montgommery and had produced to his
children his property, like his manor house of Ducey. Gabriel
de Montgommery took up this seigneury in 1596 , three years after
his marriage with Suzanne de Bouquetot, Lady du Breuile-en-Auge.
He belonged then at king’s Court, and was the captain of
50 men at arms and the governor of Pontorson. He envisaged the
construction of a castle on Ducey, the old manor house having
been demolished and brought down during the wars.
The
current state of the castle allows with difficulty to represent
itself the initial project. Mutilated from 1864, it consists of
a vast pavilion with a monumental stair and a wing which become
an independent place of residence today. Now our days, it’s
isolated in some metres in the North of the pavilion. Except that
at once to the right of the hall, the big windows of the high
ground floor are creations of the 19-th century. The track of
the departure of the south wing is visible on the photos of the
pavilion taken at the beginning of the century. Originally, the
plan of the castle was classic: a plan in U turning to the river
and surrounded with ditches. It contained dimensions as ambitious
as way of life which led a big Lord such as was Gabriel de Montgommery.
Columns ringed in the 1-st plan supervised the rests of the castle,
remarkable by an extremely rich and polychromatic rise. The granite
and the brick are used for the parement and the limestone for
the most delicate decorations.
Attached
to the remaining pavilion, the hall is preceded by steps constituted
by a double beating of stairs in two convergent ascents. Two doors
reach inside the castle.
The
stair would be one of the most ancient stairs in 4 pits at present
known and preserved in the North of the Loire. The stairwell is
decorated with a filler painted in false green and red bricks
with pilasters and feigned lifelines.Stairs and banister consist
of granite monolithic blocks. Balusters are cut in the limestone.
There are 5 levels: kitchens in the basement, the high ground
floor says about the "Big First one ", 1st , 2nd floors
and finally attics.
The
granite has very well-kept decoration allying the limestone and,
presents typical motives for the end of the XVI-th century. The
room said about the " Big First one " is a vast room
served by a corridor. It presents even today an impressive fireplace
and richly decorated notably with a picture representing an antique
warrior brandishing his two-edged sword in front of a city in
fire. Above is the slogan of the family : Marte non Fortuna.
Communicating
with the room of the "Big First one", a small remarkable
cabinet with its ceiling with box to the Italian, decorated with
a painting representing Venus, with festoons of flowers and fruits.
This iconography remains that of the Italian Renaissance.
The
golden room, which is situated just above the room of the "Big
First one" has got the same arrangement. It also presents
a luxurious fireplace decorated with a mythological picture representing
probably Apollon. On each flank of the chimney are represented
antique warriors in greyness. Two bunches of flowers in trompe-l'oeil
decorate the flanks of the coat of this fireplace. This room presents
luxurious one ceiling in joists completely painted and decorated
with small gold-coloured wooden pins.
The
nearby cabinet is characterized by a ceiling with “papier
mâché”. The red, the blue and the white dominate
the composition
The
thematic distribution of the iconography by floor, that is the
choice of a subject in connection with the war in the high ground
floor and the peaceful theme of the first floor, strengthened
by the presence of the Doric order (male order par excellence)
And the Ionic order ( feminine order) on each of the pillars of
the stair of these levels, bring to think us that the first floor
should belong originally to Gabriel de Montgommery while the first
floor should be reserved for the apartments of his wife, Suzanne
de Bouquetot.
The
basement shelters a vast room serving as kitchen and as rooms
appendices: the mass grave, the bathroom, or still prisons.
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