Description of the attraction
The main treasure of the medieval castle of Beauregard is an art gallery containing more than three hundred portraits of dignitaries who determined the course of French and European history in the XIV-XVII centuries - kings, popes, emperors and ministers.
Beauregard Castle is one of the castles located in the Loire Valley, ten kilometers from Blois. The first building on the site of the castle was erected at the end of the 15th century. Soon, its owner was accused of embezzling funds from the treasury, and his estate was confiscated and transferred to the royal land fund. Under Francis I, the estate was used as a hunting ground for the king, and then the monarch presented the castle to a relative of Rene of Savoy.
Around the middle of the 16th century, Jean de Thiers, the secretary of Henry II, who became the owner of the castle, began the construction of a new castle, at which time a new building and a central gallery appeared, connecting it with the old buildings. The style of the Italian Renaissance was chosen for the new buildings, and the owner of the castle invited court artists and sculptors to carry out finishing and decorative work. A park with rare plants was laid out near the castle. Today it covers an area of about 70 hectares, where you can also see the ruins of a 15th century chapel.
The next owner was in 1617 the royal minister Paul Ardier. He also started rebuilding the castle and added two more buildings to the central gallery. But the main merit of Ardier was the collection he started, which includes 327 portraits of the main statesmen of France and Europe of that time. Representatives of three generations of the Ardier family worked on its formation. The paintings are hung on the walls of the hall, which is 26 meters long and 6 meters wide. Here you can see the image of the kings Henry IV, Louis XIII, Philip VI, emperors and rulers of other countries, the heads of the Catholic Church.
In the second half of the 19th century, the castle was restored and recognized as a historical monument. Today it is privately owned.
