The present structure is heavily modified. Its origins were a medieval fortress whose keep was constructed around 1180. The castle was rebuilt during the Renaissance and demolished from 1798.[2] A new, more modest château was constructed in 1854. Of the original, the keep and a Renaissance well, attributed to Jean Goujon, are the only remains.
Location
The castle is built on a plateau dominating the Loing valley.
History
1059: Châtillon was a castrum held by the counts of Blois; it was a simple wooden tower, known as Castri Castellionis around 1120.[1]
1143: It was destroyed by Louis VII and the Châtillon family died out. In the mid-12th century, the Champagne family took over the land.[1]
c1180 The keep was erected by Etienne I de Sancerre.[1] The polygonal tower has six faces with buttresses in alternate corners, with rusticbossages.[3]
1464: Jean III de Coligny ordered the building of the terrace below the orangery. The building known as the Fer à Cheval (horseshoe) probably also dates from this time.[1]
1547 - 1562: Admiral Gaspard II de Coligny built a gallery terrace to the north of the earlier terrace and another terrace in the west linked to the gallery terrace with a pavilion. The gallery terrace was decorated by Francesco Primaticcio (Le Primatice) and Jean Goujon and the pavilion contained a staircase. Gaspard II also built the sculptured well, attributed to Goujon, and the orangery,[1] one of the first in the country and described as "the most beautiful of the orangeries constructed in France in the 16th century".[4]
1552: The collegiate church and the parish were transferred to a new church in the town.[1]
1569: Martinangue, governor of Gien, hunted the reformers and pillaged the castle.[1]
1572: The castle's destruction was ordered and began with the south pavilion, but this was soon interrupted.[1]
1638: Gaspard III hired the painter Duchemin to decorate the castle.[1]
1645: Gaspard IV de Coligny renounced Protestantism.[1]
1648: He was made a duke (pairie duché: an inheritable peerage). He constructed a pavilion with four apartments, gardens possibly designed by André Le Nôtre, the four pavilions in the corner of the garden and the staircase leading to the garden.[1]
1798: Antoine François Gourgeon and Hugues Montbrun, appointed to sell the castle, were authorised to demolish it and sell off the material.[5]
1816: Charles Emmanuel de Montmorency Luxembourg bought the castle and, in 1854, built the present house.[1]
^J-M Voignier, "La destruction du Château de Châtillon-Coligny", Bulletin de la Société d'émulation de l'arrondissement de Montargis, vol 3, no. 107, April 1998, pages 14-17. ISSN 1153-2297 (in French). Retrieved 6 November 2018.
