Château de Losse

The Losse Castle is a building from the 16th century and is located near the village of Thonac in the French Périgord. On a promontory overlooking the Vézère built on the foundations of a medieval fortress, it stands on the right bank of the river. Buildings and gardens have been added to the list of historic monuments in France in 1928.

History

The family of Losse came from Flanders in the 11th century and built a citadel on the river. From this time on the family members belonged to the feudal hierarchy and later swore eternal fidelity to the king of France.

Jean II, marquis de Losse was a soldier, and his unconditional loyalty to the crown strengthened both its military and its social position. At first he was Page of Francis I, later served all the sons of Catherine de Medici and Henry IV was eventually tutor.

As a devout Catholic Jean II was a staunch opponent of the Huguenot General Geoffroy de Vivans, and he had often hide in the period of religious wars against his enemies. For this reason, the Renaissance castle carries with its moat, its walls, battlements and machicolated and the parapet below the roof approach extremely defensive traits.

At the end of his career, Jean II de Losse returned as governor of Limousin and Guyenne in the Périgord and began to remodel the castle Losse in the taste of the time, but kept doing his sobriety as a country residence. Origin of today's major Renaissance housing unit was erected by him in the fortress hall building. Added to this was to improve the defenses of the castle in regard to the use of muskets and cannons. This can be traced to the various openings in the enclosure and the Barbican.

Jean II de Losse was a contemporary of Montaigne and left the castle - carved in stone - some, his life experience reflecting aphorisms. About the portal it says for example: " L' homme fait ce que peut, la fortune ce que veut " ( German: "Man does what he can, the fate of what it wants ").

Residential tract

That of a round corner tower flanked residential wing was on the river-facing side vorgebaut a fringed with a balustrade terrace. The courtyard of the castle, the visitor reaches over a bridge that has replaced the original drawbridge. The massive gatehouse is the largest of its kind in France.

The great Renaissance residential wing, whose vaulted hall was completed according to an inscription in 1576, is decorated with beautiful furniture from the 16th and 17th centuries. It conveys the atmosphere of home decor at the last Valois and the first Bourbons. On display are Flemish and Florentine tapestries and paneled in Green Salon a wax portrait of Henry IV.

Gardens

In the lower garden two symmetrical tree- rosemary beds are separated by a fountain fed by a canal. Seating is available near a small knot garden.

On a farm building, the path leads past the terraced gardens that are with their beech and boxwood hedges, shrubs Spier and her lavender in the style of the 17th century. While walking through the maze open up repeatedly " window " and give a view of the castle and the flower beds free. A balcony from the 16th century overlooking the river.