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Come and visit the chateau of Assier in the heart of the Lot, between Figeac and Rocamadour. Discover this fine example of how Renaissance art spread beyond the Loire Valley.
Visiting the chateau of Assier
• A country seat. The buildings, forming a vast quadrangle, date from between 1510 and 1535. Only the entrance wing still stands with its spectacular gateway with porticos, loggias and pediments. The courtyard facade is decorated with two large friezes with elaborately sculpted emblems referring to the legend of Hercules and to the military positions held by Galiot de Genouillac who commissioned it and was an artillery master to François I.
• A remarkable staircase. It is on cross-ribbed vaults and has two straight flights and a half-spiral. The first-floor landing has an elegant pilaster decorated with grotesque patterns.
• A fine arts installation. Since 2000, the ‘Fenêtres sur cour' installation gives an idea of what the chateau of Assier once looked like by generating the illusion of the three wings which no longer stand.
Understanding the chateau of Assier
• The diffusion of the Italian model. Together with Assier, the neighbouring chateaux at Montal and Puyguilhem in the Périgord show how a new way of living was adopted by the French nobility.
• Rescuing a dismantled chateau. In 1768, the Duke of Uzès, Galiot de Genouillac's descendant, kept the still extant wing for agricultural purposes but sold most of the chateau to building material merchants. It was listed in 1841 by Mérimée, the General Inspector for Historic Monuments, and the ruins were bought by the State in 1934.
