page_title: Château de Chaumont-la-Guiche
section_title: The stables
hierarchical_section_title: Château de Chaumont-la-Guiche / The stables
caption_attribution_description: English: Postcard photo of the southeast facade of the stables of the Château de Chaumont-la-Guiche in Saint-Bonnet-de-Joux, France; designed by the architect François Blondel, built 1648–1652 by the local mason and entrepreneur François Martel This building is classé au titre des Monuments Historiques. It is indexed in the Base Mérimée, a database of architectural heritage maintained by the French Ministry of Culture,&#160;under the reference PA00113423 . беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎&#160;| বাংলা&#160;| brezhoneg&#160;| català&#160;| Deutsch&#160;| Ελληνικά&#160;| English&#160;| Esperanto&#160;| español&#160;| euskara&#160;| suomi&#160;| français&#160;| magyar&#160;| italiano&#160;| 日本語&#160;| македонски&#160;| Nederlands&#160;| português&#160;| português do Brasil&#160;| română&#160;| русский&#160;| sicilianu&#160;| svenska&#160;| українська&#160;| العربيَّة&#160;| +/−
context_page_description: The French Château de Chaumont-la-Guiche [or -Laguiche], located in Saint-Bonnet-de-Joux, in a region formerly known as Charolais in southern Burgundy, was constructed beginning in 1500 for the La Guiche family. The most famous feature of the château is the monumental 17th-century stable block, designed by the noted French architect, François Blondel.
context_section_description: The most notable feature at the château is the famous stable block, a vast rectangular building with two monumental stone-balustraded exterior double staircases flanking the main entrance. The latter is surmounted by a life-sized equestrian statue of Philibert de La Guiche, "an imperial motif unprecedented in a building of this sort." The identity of the horseman is suggested by reliefs of two cannons above the pediment. Two large, very tall stone chimneys loom over the extremities of the building. The cross-vaulted ground floor is divided into three aisles by 56 Tuscan columns in two parallel arcades. The outer two aisles contain stalls for more than 80 horses.
  The stables were erected from 1648 to 1652 by the local mason and entrepreneur François Martel, who is often credited with the design, but François Blondel claimed it as his own in a note in his 1685 edition of Louis Savot's L'architecture françoise. Henriette de La Guiche, the daughter of Philibert, built the stables for her second husband, Louis-Emmanuel de Valois, comte d'Alais, colonel général of the king's cavalry, governor of Provence, and a grandson of Charles IX of France. Alais had also inherited the Château d'Écouen. These royal connections account for the monumentality of the design. Alais probably knew Blondel via the military. Alais could not have used the stables much. He died in the year after its completion.
  The stables have been classified as a Monument historique since 1982 by the French Ministry of Culture.
caption: Postcard
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