DEPECHE DU MIDI -
The Château de Goudourville, a listed historic monument, has just launched a fundraising campaign to save the Renaissance staircase, which is in danger of collapsing, with the Fondation des Vieilles Maisons de France (VMF), which is supported by the Fondation du Patrimoine.
Nestled on a bushy promontory with an unobstructed view of the Garonne valley, the castle of Goudourville is not visible until the last moment. A passage in front of the church of Saint-Julien, which has been closely restored, leads to the imposing mass of the castle, with its proud and slightly martial appearance, a legacy of its role as a fortress, erected in 1 081 by the Gasques family.
Geneviève Carayon and her husband, the happy owners for the past twenty years, have spared no effort and no budget to restore the site which, after having survived the centuries and undergone several ransacks following the Fronde and the French Revolution, is now suffering the ravages of time. If the castle no longer faces the torments of history, it is the ravages of intense and increasingly frequent rainfall that are the trials to be overcome," explains Geneviève Carayon. Making the castle watertight remains a battle that is still being fought. The first stage of work, designed to protect the Renaissance tower and the façade of the guard room from water, has just been completed.
Victim of Covid 19
The second phase, which will consolidate and restore the vault at the top of the Renaissance staircase, will be scheduled at a later date.
The cost of this work amounts to 72,000 euros, including 45,000 for the waterproofing and 27,000 for the consolidation of the top of the staircase. The owners have received a grant of 8,000 euros from the DRAC. In the meantime, Covid 19 has come and gone and the château, which used to host weddings, family celebrations and other unusual weekends with friends, has become deserted. The cancellations of many bookings have made the economic situation difficult and the owners have decided to launch a fundraising campaign with the support of the Fondation des Vieilles Maisons de France (VMF), which is sheltered by the Fondation du Patrimoine. They hope to collect at least 20,000 euros before the end of September (1).
Depending on the amount of the donations, the owners will offer donors and patrons an exclusive prestige evening. This will be an opportunity to judge the passion of Geneviève Carayon. She will guide the guests through the Renaissance spiral staircase which ends in a palm tree vault with sculpted bases, a succession of rooms and salons with mullioned windows, the old kitchens which have kept their vegetable garden as in Chambord, and the small vaulted chapel next to the guards' room.
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(1) www.vmfpatrimoine.org/projet/chateau-de-goudourville-82/ or by mail to VMF, 93 rue de l’Université, 75007 Paris for the attention of Mme Demartial to the order of Fondation du Patrimoine.