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Château de Javarzay was reconstructed in 1514 by members of the House of Rochechouart. There was originally a medieval castle which had an enceinte flanked by 12 towers, of which only two remain.
The property has had a number of owners; the Rochefoucauld-Roye family bought it from François de Rochechouart of Chandeniers in 1655; Jérôme Phélypeaux, Count of Pontchartrain and minister of Louis XIV; Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, lawyer of Louis XVI. Jérôme Phélypeaux, Secretary of State for the Navy, son of the Chancellor of France Louis, bought the estate of Javarzay in 1712 for the sum of 100,000 livres, but there was a family connection: his wife was Eléonore-Christine de La Rochefoucauld, daughter of Frédéric-Charles, Count of Roucy and Roye. In 1785, at least, the owner was Joseph Michel Le Blois, advocate at the military tribunals during the French Revolution. His daughter, Marie-Anne (born in the château in 1787) married Ange Achille de Brunet, Count of Neuilly.
What remains of the château, the most imposing of the period in Deux-Sèvres, is the building which joins the two towers and the chapel. The left wing has been destroyed and the right wing is a later construction. The enceinte was demolished between 1820 and 1824 and the sculptures have disappeared. The orangery dates from 1854.
The Château de Javarzay combines both Renaissance and feudal aspects with its machicolations and its moat as well as conical roofs covered with slate. Its entrance pavilion is flanked by four corbelled turrets.
References:House of the Blackheads (Melngalvju nams) is a building situated in the old town of Riga. The original building was erected during the first third of the 14th century for the Brotherhood of Blackheads, a guild for unmarried German merchants in Riga. Major works were done in the years 1580 and 1886, adding most of the ornaments.
The structure was bombed to a ruin by the Germans June 28, 1941 and the remains demolished by the Soviets in 1948. The current reconstruction was erected from 1995 to 1999. Today the House of Blackheads serves as a museum and sometimes concert hall.