Watch for the bit where it almost flies into the door
February 5, 2016 1:58 PM   Subscribe

 
Why is the grass freshly mowed and the garden maintained while the building itself is being left to ruin?
Is the chapel still in use while the rest abandoned?

Since too few who could afford to repair these kinds of places would want to have their residence in them, how many of these old buildings escape ruin by moving to a condo/apartment building model, so that maintenance costs are spread across multiple regular families?

From wikipedia: In 1932, a major fire destroyed most of the buildings in the castle. It has been abandoned ever since
posted by anonymisc at 3:17 PM on February 5, 2016


Stabilizing drone footage looks to have improved nicely.
posted by butterstick at 3:25 PM on February 5, 2016


Since too few who could afford to repair these kinds of places would want to have their residence in them, how many of these old buildings escape ruin by moving to a condo/apartment building model, so that maintenance costs are spread across multiple regular families?

I can't speak for France, but that is absolutely how how things have been going in Britain with castles, manor houses, churches, warehouses, etc. etc. Basically anything big and old is now, or soon will be, a block of flats. Or a pile of ruins.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:34 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


Some context (thanks to French Wikipedia):
Construction began in the 13th century, by the Baucay family. In 1328 it goes to knight Jean de Rochechouart (noble family since 980 - the oldest in France). The next centuries hijinks occur, falling out of grace with the king and whatnot.
In 1809 a proto-capitalist (famous entrepreneur) buys it. In 1870, there's a "renovation" in the style of Bavarias Ludwig II (Neuschwanstein is the quintessential Disney castle).
As anonymisc has already posted, the 1932 renovation (putting in central heating) goes haywire, only the chapel, the dovecote and some auxilliary buildings survice unwrecked. Lots and lots of valuable and historically important stuff is destroyed.
In 1963 another capitalist buys it and puts pied-noirs (French colonists from Algeria who had to leave because independence) to work the vast estates.
It peters out when in the 80s a major bank buys the estate around the castle and sells it, piece by piece.

You can't make that shit up.
posted by ojemine at 3:38 PM on February 5, 2016 [2 favorites]


Was this place in that Johnny Depp movie where Johnny had to find all the old books?
posted by lagomorphius at 4:04 PM on February 5, 2016


It's amazing how trees can live basically anywhere. Thanks for posting, this was neat to see!
posted by sadmadglad at 4:07 PM on February 5, 2016


I read this as Drone Fight and it was surprisingly tense.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:30 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


Why is the grass freshly mowed and the garden maintained while the building itself is being left to ruin?

http://www.messynessychic.com/2015/11/06/wont-someone-save-this-scandalously-forgotten-chateau/
in the 1980s, the surrounding land and forest of the Château de la Mothe-Chandeniers was sold to the French bank, Crédit Lyonnais, who left the woods to abandon but then sold it off piece by piece to make the most money possible. So today, there are in fact several owners, on what was formerly the estate of the Chateau, some of them actually living on the property in buildings within the outer moats. Very close by, CenterParcs, a well-known tourism chain also recently built a vacation facility
posted by anazgnos at 4:58 PM on February 5, 2016


Right, that settles it. My next trip to France I am going to go around all these abandoned chateaux.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:59 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


from here: "This statement was added to the end of the Chateau’s Wikipedia page in December 2015, and although it lacks a citation to reliable resources, it certainly sounds like it could be good news…

Quietly lease-purchased in Oct 2015 by Canadian multi-millionaire Mark Henderson [Ericsson Canada President and CEO?] with a generous plan to salvage and fully restore the chateau to its original 18th century themes serving as both his private home with vast charitable access to the public and a posthumous bequeathal to the people of France."


Let's hope M. Henderson has really deep pockets and lots of good will.
posted by anadem at 9:38 PM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]


That music, I kept on waiting for a bank heist to begin or something like that.....such intensity....
posted by Fizz at 6:43 AM on February 6, 2016


The situation is indeed complicated. The current owner is under a 5-year restraining order banning him from the castle grounds after he tried to run over with his car someone from a heritage association. He had been convicted previously for using antisemitic slurs against a neighbour and was described has having a "paranoid personality" by a psychiatrist. So, not an easy person to work with apparently.
In any case, the central problem may be that the castle, as it currently appears, is one of those "creative restorations" made in the 19th century with little or no respect for the original building, so it's about as genuine as the Sleeping Beauty castle in Disneyland. It's not even classified as a Monument Historique, unlike the nearby (and much less spectacular) Manoir de Chandoiseau, a small mansion that used to be part of the Mothe-Chandeniers estate and is an actual (and properly restored) 15th century building.
posted by elgilito at 7:19 AM on February 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


Was anybody else annoyed by the editing? I wanted the shots to stop being interrupted so I could see the whole building.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 7:22 PM on February 6, 2016


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