Photo : Clenpat (Patrick Clenet) / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Château d'Assier
The château d'Assier, in the Lot, is a major testimony to the spread of the Renaissance outside the Loire Valley. It was built between 1518 and 1535 for Jacques Ricard de Genouillac, known as Galiot, first master of artillery of Francis I, on the site of an old feudal castle where he was born. The original plan formed a square of about forty metres, flanked by four round towers.
In 1768, the duke of Uzès sold most of the château to demolishers. Listed in 1841, it was bought back by the State in 1934. Only the west wing survives, with its monumental portal with porticoes and loggias, its niche that housed Galiot's equestrian statue and its carved friezes evoking his military campaigns and the legend of Hercules.
The estate also includes a dovecote dated 1537 and its some 2,500 nesting holes. The château is managed by the Centre des monuments nationaux.
