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Loire heritage


Loire heritage
Photo Information
Copyright: robbert metselaar (robbertjan) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 576 W: 64 N: 463] (2906)
Genre: Places
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2004-07-26
Categories: Castles
Camera: Olympus Camedia C-3000 Zoom
Photo Version: Original Version, Workshop
Date Submitted: 2004-08-02 3:56
Viewed: 1616
Points: 9
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Back at work.....Another picture of Saumur. I looked up some information about this beautiful castle.

The Castle-Museum of Saumur (dating back from the XIIIth, XIVth and XVth centuries) was classified Historic building in 1862.

Duke Louis 1st of Anjou, brother of King Charles V, built in the second half of the XIVth century a pleasant dwelling on the basement of a fortress built under the minority of King Saint Louis in the XIIIth century. With its broad windows, its crenels decorated with fleur-de-lis, its main staircase with worked bays, the castle of Saumur prefigures of the renaissance dwellings.

At the end of the XVIth century Saumur becomes a place of protestant security. The governor of the city, Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, a friend of Henry IVth, encircles the castle with significant fortifications with steps and bastions.

With the departure of Philippe Duplessis-Mornay the castle becomes the residence of the governors of the city. It is also a prison where prisoners on lettre de cachet are jailed and at the end of the XVIIIth century a prison for war prisoners. The buildings slowly fall into decay. As soon as the end of the XVIIth century, the western wing is ruined.
Transformed into a prison of state under the empire, it partly finds its ducal aspect back at the beginning of the XXth century when the town of Saumur repurchases it and restores it. Since May 1997, the southern wing and the western tower are the subjects of an enthralling building site of restoration.

The castle will in the long term find back all its splendour which is so nicely testified in the miniature " The very rich hours " of the duke of Berry.
Liora, Nottinghill, ChrisJ, orme has marked this note useful
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Critiques [Translate]

  • Great 
  • Liora Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1152 W: 142 N: 323] (1857)
  • [2004-08-02 4:08]

A wonderful portrait of this castle and a most profound note Robbert. I like the angle you chose, which glorifies the architecture. With those heavy grays and thick walls it does looks a little like a prison, and still it's most beautiful.

I can't resist a feeling there is too much blue here. Maybe I'm wrong, I haven't been there, but on the picture even gray stones of walls have some kind of blue shade. This happened sometimes to me when I used WB set to sunshine. The other indication is the darkness of trees. The benefit of blue oversaturation is the visibility of clouds, which add a very nice background to the castle.
I hope to go there some day. Thanks for sharing

Could be a little less blue in the castle. The sky is great though. I may try a ws. Very good pov.

  • Great 
  • orme Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2013 W: 139 N: 1496] (6613)
  • [2004-08-03 2:07]

Stunning architecture with a marvelous blue sky. Perhaps another angle without the foreground wall would also work well. Excellent note. Well done, Robert.

the colors seem uniform which to me is a plus, a lot of bluish-grey with a transition from the sky to the wall, well done

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