CastleThiviers (24)

A chateau that was fully renovated in 1960 with large outhouses and over 28 hectares of bucolic grounds with a river, nestled between the cities of Périgueux and Limoges. The 28-hectare property stretches lengthways in the hollow of a narrow, isolated valley. Two riverbanks extend across several hundred metres beside a river flanked with meadows and forests. To reach the riverside woods, you can cross a wooden bridge that the current owners built. The property’s four buildings stand in a walled garden. These enclosing walls run alongside a calm road and mark a boundary with the meadow beyond. Stone pillars frame a large gate that leads into a vast drive paved in an opus incertum pattern. The chateau towers straight ahead. Four corner bartizans give the edifice a slender, graceful style. The imposing edifice made of local stone is a harmonious structure made up of several sections, each with their own steep hipped roof of flat tiles. These sections form a U shape and are linked together with a central covered gallery. The elevations are dotted with different windows set in ashlar surrounds, revealing the building's different phases of construction. All the windows are fitted with indoor wooden shutters. The corner bartizans, which are either round with a cone roof or square with a pyramidal roof, are crowned with finials. Wall dormers with a hipped roof or large gable end punctuate the top of the elevations. Following a fire, the chateau was entirely restored in 1960. This work restored the roofs, the window surrounds, the pointing, the terrace paving, and the windows with their small panes, single glazing and wooden frames. The paved space extends up to three garages, a barn, a caretaker’s house, a secondary gate and a huge cowshed that was built in the 1960s. The garden is made up of lawns with flowering plants, centred upon an ornamental pond. This space also includes a small shelter with a roof of flat tiles. On either side of the wall that separates the garden from the meadow, a few stone steps take you across this walled boundary.