Château de Valençay

Although it is part of the province of Berry, its architecture invites comparison with the Renaissance châteaux of the Loire Valley, notably the Château de Chambord.

In 1220, the then lord of Valençay, Gauthier, was reported to have built a feudal castle or house on the site, but it is unclear if this was an addition or an extension to the earlier tower.

Nearly a century later, in 1803, Napoleon ordered his foreign minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand to acquire the property as a place particularly appropriate for the reception of foreign dignitaries, notably Ferdinand VII of Spain, his brother Infante Carlos, Count of Molina and his uncle Infante Antonio Pascual, who would spend six years in Napoleonic captivity at Valençay.

The period of Talleyrand's occupancy was the golden age in the history of Valençay, with twenty-three communes reportedly administered by the ruling prince.

The Princes of Talleyrand-Périgord ranked among the mediatized German nobility by virtue of their nominal control of the duchy of Sagan in Prussian Silesia (now in Poland).

Having established his personal neutrality, the Duke of Sagan saw treasures from the Louvre (like the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo) safely sheltered at Valençay.

Its feigned battlements are evocative of the Middle Ages, a retrospective formula stylistically derived from Chambord but somewhat vitiated by ample fenestration, including characteristic Renaissance dormers.