Château de Montigny-sur-Aube, Historic castle in Montigny-sur-Aube, France
Château de Montigny-sur-Aube is a 16th-century castle in Montigny-sur-Aube, Côte-d'Or. Its north facade has large bays separated by 44 paired Doric and Ionic columns built in 1550 on a medieval fortress, of which the red tower remains at the western corner. The south facade, facing an English-style park, was remodeled in the 19th century, and the castle chapel stands isolated.
A fortified house stood here from the 12th century. In 1550 Jean V d'Amoncourt, archdeacon of Langres and later bishop of Poitiers, remodelled the courtyard façades after returning from Italy, and added the chapel in 1553. A fire destroyed three-quarters of the castle in 1794; the four dormers of the south façade and the chapel front were reused from the ruined buildings. The château was listed in 1959 and classified in 1961.
The castle's name is also given as château de Beauregard. Its walled 19th-century kitchen and fruit gardens, restored in 2013, hold several hundred fruit varieties trained as espaliers and contre-espaliers, many of them pre-1900; they received the Jardin remarquable label in 2015. A Renaissance fountain and gardener's basins stand where arched alleys cross.
The castle stands in the village of Montigny-sur-Aube, at the meeting point of the Côte-d'Or, Haute-Marne and Aube departments, about two and a half hours from Paris, inside the Forêts de Champagne-Bourgogne national park. The walled 19th-century kitchen and fruit gardens, replanted in 2013, lie next to the park, beyond the orangery and the former heated chamber turned fig orchard.
Harry Truman, then a US Army officer, stayed at the castle from April to June 1918 during an artillery school course and was promoted to captain afterwards. A stele with a commemorative plaque donated by his foundation was inaugurated here by his grandson Clifton Truman Daniel in October 2018.
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