Château de Cormatin, Renaissance castle in Cormatin, France

Château de Cormatin stands on an island in the Grosne river, built from 1605 in a Renaissance style with military features: a rusticated stone base, corner turrets and gun loops. Only the main logis and a perpendicular wing remain around the cour d'honneur, after the south wing collapsed in 1815. The 12-hectare park holds a boxwood maze recreated between 1990 and 1993.

Antoine du Blé d'Uxelles, enriched as a military commander in the Wars of Religion and named governor of Chalon by Henri IV, began the present castle in 1605 on the foundations of a 13th-century predecessor. The south wing was finished in 1612; Jacques Gentillâtre worked as architect from 1614 to 1622, and the north lodge was completed in 1626. Louis XIII and Richelieu stayed there on the night of 5-6 February 1629.

The name Cormatin comes from the du Blé family's seigneurie, and the château has been open to visitors since the late 20th century as part of La Route des châteaux en Bourgogne du Sud. Inside, the cabinet de Sainte-Cécile is lined with lapis-lazuli and gilding that catch candlelight, while the cabinet des curiosités retains one of the oldest painted ceilings. The gardens, recreated between 1990 and 1993, include a boxwood labyrinth whose central pavilion is topped by an iron dome made by Michel and J.-Y. Bouillot in 1990.

The castle is a private property open daily from April to November, Sundays and public holidays included. A partial visit covers the 1900 rooms and the park on your own; the full visit adds a guided tour of the 17th-century apartments. The site can be reached by line 7 of the Buscéphale departmental coach network.

In the middle of the north wing, the open-well staircase (escalier à cage vide) is the oldest of its kind preserved in France. It is not a spiral staircase: the central void is left open, without a supporting core. Look for it between the two wings around the courtyard of honour.