The Château de Rudelle is a 16th and 17th century castle in the commune of Muret. The castle is noted for its ancient chimneys and for murals painted on the third floor.
It was built by Guillaume de Rudelle, the son of Jean de Rudelle, a counsellor to the king. In 1783, Jean-Marie-Joseph Ingres, the father of the famous artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, stayed there and painted several ceilings. At the French Revolution, the property was taken as a national asset and sold at auction.
The building today has a reactangular plan within square towers at each corner. On the south, a square tower projects slightly. On the top floor, immediately below the roof, is a series of arcades on the north and south façades. Mullioned windows decorate the façade. The upper floors are reached by a wooden spiral staircase.
References:The Great Basilica of Pliska is an architectural complex in Pliska, the first capital of the First Bulgarian Empire, which includes the cathedral, an archbishop"s palace and a monastery. The basilica was constructed on the orders of the knyaz of Bulgaria, Boris I (r. 852–889), after his baptism in 864 and the resultant Christianization of Bulgaria. Completed around 875, the basilica was 102.5 metres long and 30 metres wide. The complex includes Great Basilica itself – a basilica used as the cathedral church – and the attached monastery and episcopal palace inhabited by Christian monks and the bishop of Pliska.
Pliska was the first capital of Bulgaria, and according to legend founded by Asparuh of Bulgaria in the late 7th century. The site was originally an encampment, with the first tent-shaped buildings at Pliska of uncertain date.