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History of Château de Bagnols
The story of Château de Bagnols mirrors the rise to Renaissance prominence of nearby Lyon. The château has enjoyed four distinct periods. The first was medieval, when a defensive fortress was built between 1217 and 1221 by Guichard d'Oingt, an ally of the Archbishop of Lyon. The original three round towers, linked by curtain walls with arrow loops, were surrounded by a deep moat whose dug out earth was used for an embankment from which to survey the whole valley. The Basse Cour, or lower courtyard, was where villagers could take refuge in time of need.
After the Hundred Years War - during which the château was owned by royalist d'Albon and de Balzac families - the Medicis arrived in Lyon in 1466 and were instrumental in the city's rise to the position of commercial and banking capital of France. By the end of the century, Lyon's peaceful prosperity had led to an artistic and cultural flowering. At Bagnols during this period, although gun loops were added to the north tower, the residential quarters were embellished with wall paintings, one of which, an imitation tent, still survives.
One particular owner of Bagnols became synonymous with Lyon's new character: the cultured Geoffroy de Balzac, adviser and chamberlain to Charles VIII. The king's visit in 1490 is commemorated in the Salles des Gardes (now the dining room) by the royal coat of arms above the monumental Gothic fireplace, reputedly the largest in France. Its decoration incorporates musicians, angels bearing a coat of arms, and foliage pouring out of monsters' mouths.
The following year, Geoffroy married the daughter of Jean Léviste, a Lyon magistrate who had commissioned France's most famous medieval tapestries, The Lady with the Unicorn, now in the Cluny Museum in Paris. Before he died in 1509, Geoffroy also rebuilt the Basse Cour and enclosed the garden with a wall punctuated by little decorative round towers. With the confidence born of peace, he had large windows cut into the château's exterior walls and added mullioned windows to the inner court.
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