Once Upon a Time
May 2008
The Renaissance building, which served as the central living spaces for the Bignys, is dominated by the Tour du Dragon, a central entrance that leads to the escalier d’honneur, a wide spiral stone staircase. From here, the Grand Salon, library, sitting rooms, an enormous kitchen and upper chambers are accessible; off the Tour du Dragon, the loggia with its large vaulted windows and balconies painted in royal blue and stenciled with the fleur-de-lis, emblem of the King of France, look out onto the courtyard.
Of note is the detail on the main tower’s façade, recalling the Bignys’ relationship to king, country and God, with the central coat of arms—a lion on a shield surrounded by five fish and supported by two mermaids.
Inside, the Château’s rooms open up onto the history of France. In the Grand Salon, an immense gothic fireplace in carved painted stone depicts the King’s coat of arms, the three fleurs-de-lis, along with their symbolic guardian deer. "It was built just after the Château was purchased at the end of the 15th century," says Marie-Sol. "It’s one of the wonders of the Château and we use it all the time, especially at Christmastime for friends and family."
Across the Grand Salon and above a 17th-century Dutch-made secrétaire made of dense, Indonesian ironwood ("It will not float!" says Marie-Sol) is the large 17th-century portrait of foreign minister, Charles de Colbert-Croissy, brother of Jean-Baptiste de Colbert, finance minister under Louis XIV. The Colbert family was prominent in the military history of France and an extremely capable and powerful clan (three Colberts were generals, one was Napoleon’s godson). A full-length portrait of General Auguste de Colbert in uniform by Gérard hangs just to the left of the hearth and underneath the rich hand-painted and gold-leafed beamed ceiling. The large dining room (once the kitchen) is dominated by a portrait of the Duchess of Luxembourg, the granddaughter of Jean-Baptiste de Colbert.
Ainay also has its own chapel, a small but magnificent structure one enters through a monumental portal off the Grand Salon, guided by two medieval sculpted stone figures of Venus and Vulcan; inside are frescoes of the Bigny family by Jean Boucher and his school depicting the life of Christ and a stained-glass window showing the passion of Christ by Blaise Lécuyer, a Renaissance master whose work for the Duc de Berry was widely acclaimed; the ceiling is an exceptional Renaissance example of plafond à caissons, with the earth spinning on its axis in the hands of God in the center of the relief. Marie-Sol and her brothers and sister all attended Mass in the chapel as children, as did their ancestors. During World War II, Baroness d’Aligny offered the Archbishop of Bourges a shelter for the nuns from Metz, and the chapel took on a new life.
Upstairs are bedrooms, among them the King’s Room, where King Louis XII reportedly slept. Next to the bed is the chaise à porteurs, a royal coach carried by servants; the Marquise de Bigny used it to escape from Bigny when the revolutionaries began hunting down aristocrats. The Marquis de Bigny was not as fortunate: He was arrested and guillotined in nearby Bourges.
Stored in locked glass cases are some of the family’s rarest pieces: Marie Antoinette’s prehistoric amber pendant and tiny gold music box, miniatures of Napoléon and Josephine, gold signets, a collection of carved gold-handled swords, pistols and medals earned by the illustrious Colberts and other military leaders in the family, as well as rare and one-of-a-kind books. (These handmade, leather-bound Colbert books are indeed rare, and a portion of the collection formed the basis for the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.) One book in particular is the Terrier, which recounts the legal history of the Château—essentially the daily accounting of the castle’s land acquisitions and sales over the centuries. This unique, immense volume, which dates from the 15th century, was one of the first targets of French revolutionaries in their abolishment of the aristocracy and its symbols. Burn these books, they reasoned, and the deeds and legal rights of the noblemen to the lands disappear. "Luckily, this copy was spared," says Marie-Sol. "I don’t know how."
Of note is the detail on the main tower’s façade, recalling the Bignys’ relationship to king, country and God, with the central coat of arms—a lion on a shield surrounded by five fish and supported by two mermaids.
Inside, the Château’s rooms open up onto the history of France. In the Grand Salon, an immense gothic fireplace in carved painted stone depicts the King’s coat of arms, the three fleurs-de-lis, along with their symbolic guardian deer. "It was built just after the Château was purchased at the end of the 15th century," says Marie-Sol. "It’s one of the wonders of the Château and we use it all the time, especially at Christmastime for friends and family."
Across the Grand Salon and above a 17th-century Dutch-made secrétaire made of dense, Indonesian ironwood ("It will not float!" says Marie-Sol) is the large 17th-century portrait of foreign minister, Charles de Colbert-Croissy, brother of Jean-Baptiste de Colbert, finance minister under Louis XIV. The Colbert family was prominent in the military history of France and an extremely capable and powerful clan (three Colberts were generals, one was Napoleon’s godson). A full-length portrait of General Auguste de Colbert in uniform by Gérard hangs just to the left of the hearth and underneath the rich hand-painted and gold-leafed beamed ceiling. The large dining room (once the kitchen) is dominated by a portrait of the Duchess of Luxembourg, the granddaughter of Jean-Baptiste de Colbert.
Ainay also has its own chapel, a small but magnificent structure one enters through a monumental portal off the Grand Salon, guided by two medieval sculpted stone figures of Venus and Vulcan; inside are frescoes of the Bigny family by Jean Boucher and his school depicting the life of Christ and a stained-glass window showing the passion of Christ by Blaise Lécuyer, a Renaissance master whose work for the Duc de Berry was widely acclaimed; the ceiling is an exceptional Renaissance example of plafond à caissons, with the earth spinning on its axis in the hands of God in the center of the relief. Marie-Sol and her brothers and sister all attended Mass in the chapel as children, as did their ancestors. During World War II, Baroness d’Aligny offered the Archbishop of Bourges a shelter for the nuns from Metz, and the chapel took on a new life.
Upstairs are bedrooms, among them the King’s Room, where King Louis XII reportedly slept. Next to the bed is the chaise à porteurs, a royal coach carried by servants; the Marquise de Bigny used it to escape from Bigny when the revolutionaries began hunting down aristocrats. The Marquis de Bigny was not as fortunate: He was arrested and guillotined in nearby Bourges.
Stored in locked glass cases are some of the family’s rarest pieces: Marie Antoinette’s prehistoric amber pendant and tiny gold music box, miniatures of Napoléon and Josephine, gold signets, a collection of carved gold-handled swords, pistols and medals earned by the illustrious Colberts and other military leaders in the family, as well as rare and one-of-a-kind books. (These handmade, leather-bound Colbert books are indeed rare, and a portion of the collection formed the basis for the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.) One book in particular is the Terrier, which recounts the legal history of the Château—essentially the daily accounting of the castle’s land acquisitions and sales over the centuries. This unique, immense volume, which dates from the 15th century, was one of the first targets of French revolutionaries in their abolishment of the aristocracy and its symbols. Burn these books, they reasoned, and the deeds and legal rights of the noblemen to the lands disappear. "Luckily, this copy was spared," says Marie-Sol. "I don’t know how."
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