The Château de Gizeux is originally dating from the Middle Ages, but much altered over the centuries. Archives indicate the existence of a wooden fortress built in the 11th century in the actual place of the castle. The most remote constructions that we can find nowadays are the entry tower, the right wing and the enclosure. The château belonged to the family of the poet Joachim du Bellay from 1315 to 1660. Later it became the property of several marquises of Gizeux from the family of Contades.
In 1789, during the French Revolution, Prince Louis Gabriel de Contades (1759-1825), opposing the revolutionaries, had to flee from French soil and find refuge in Saint-Domingue. He returned to Gizeux in 1801.
Gizeux represents the mixed medieval and Renaissance style. The château has two large galleries of paintings: the Galerie François Ier (François I) decorated with Italian paintings from the start of the 17th century, and the Grande Galerie des Châteaux decorated with late 17th century paintings.
The park was established in 1829. Nearby a church houses the Du Bellays' splendid tombs. The extremely rare 17th century orants were made of white marble by Ghislain (known as Cambrai), director of the Académie royale de peinture et sculpture in Paris. The Château de Gizeux has been listed since 1945 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.
References:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).