History

Full price 7,50 euros

Reduced tariff 6 euros

Group tariff for 20+ people 5,50 euros

Personal tour with the owner available on reservation for an additional 150 euro supplementary charge. 

The castle of Troussay from 15th to 19th century

The story of Troussay begins with the laying of its first stone around 1450. A 1545 act mentions the name of the first owner: Robert de Bugy, later called “the Lord of Troussay”. By 1578, he was an alderman of the city of Blois. His family was ennobled after his death in 1758 and his descendants, holders of the titles: “controllers of the salt attics of Blois”, “collectors of taxes”, “councillors” and “squires of the King”, broadened and embellished the domain of Troussay.

In 1732, Troussay was sold to a family of nobles from Blois, the Pelluys, a family related to Colbert. In 1741, their daughter, Gabrielle Pelluys the beautiful, married Knight Christophe de Réméon, a descendant of Claude de Réméon’s, Claude de Réméon , who once was a companion of Henri IV, King of France. Gabrielle’s dowry was to be the lands of Troussay to her had Christophe de Réméon, their fourth child, married Marie de La Saussaye in 1787. Having no children of their own, they adopted Marie’s nephew: Louis de La Saussaye (1801-1878) who inherited Troussay in 1828.

Louis de La Saussaie’s work

Historian of the Loire Castles and a specialist of the Sologne region, Louis de La Saussaye was appointed chief education officer of the academies of Lyon and Poitiers and, from 1845 till his death, member of “L’Institut de France”. As his friend, Prosper Mérimée (First Inspector of the historic monuments in 1834), he was a precursor in the matter of patrimony preservation. In 50 years, he undertook a complete restoration of the domain. He saved numerous decoration elements stemming from the Val de Loire’s prestigious monuments which were left in ruin and set them back to Troussay. He realized this rescue work with his friend Jules de La Morandière, architect of the Loire Castles and a pupil of Félix Duban’s. In homage to their collaboration, a quaint figure on the turret of the North façade unwinds a Latin banner: “Brought together by friendship, Louis de La Saussaye conceived and Jules de La Morandière realized”.

In 1900, the castle of Troussay was sold for the second time by the heirs of Louis de La Saussaye, in favour of Earl Delamarre de Monchaux, learned naturalist, whose wife, Isore Hurault de Vibraye, was willing to stay nearby her family, who lived in the castle of Cheverny.

Today the owner, Isaure de Sainte Marie, who succeeded to her father, is living at the castle.

An artistic madness

By avoiding the conception’s mistakes, frequent in his time, Louis de La Saussaye carried out a real small artistic “madness” and gave the former manor house the look of a castle.

By the architectural refinement and the elaboration of its towers, its oratory, its invaluable materials and the quality of the elements of former decorations he settled there, Louis de La Saussaye transformed the “Solognot” Renaissance manor house of Troussay in artistic “madness” and in a real castle. Today, on the various sightseeing roads and by its visitors, Troussay is recognized as the smallest of the Loire Castles.

A mosaic of ancient decorations

Sculptures on stones, ornamentation of facades, fireplaces, doors and wooden windows finely sculptured, painted ceilings – among which one is attributed to Jean Mosnier -, polychromatic stained glasses, fireplace plates and ancient keys, Louis XII stone floor and art furniture of over five centuries can be admired in Troussay.

The variety of elements integrated into the architecture, the wealth of the furniture, the complexity is rarely gathered in a human-sized space.

The « old France » grounds

Since his arrival, Louis de La Saussaye concentrated his effort on the grounds as well as the kitchen garden that received its particular attention on a conception point of view.

Creation and plantation of a landscape grounds, in varied essences (oaks, blue cedars, cedars of Lebanon and Virginia, sequoias of America, Californian thuja), Troussay remains until today the sanctuary for Sologne wild animals, deers, hinds, roe deers, rabbits, barn owls, buzzards…

On the Northern part of the grounds, of the formal French garden and the kitchen garden of the XVIIIth century, remained two small detached houses which used to tidy up the gardeners’ tools and today fitted out in the small ancient dolls’ museum. Louis de La Saussaye also created a new kitchen garden, on the Eastern part of the castle, in the private parts of it, where you can find numerous fruit trees (apple, pear, plum, apricot) as well as an original glass greenhouse and a hedge of box trees almost a hundred-year-old.{:}