Château de Selore

Château de Selore stands in Saint-Yan, France; its first fortifications were raised under the authority of the first Duke of Burgundy and therefore originate in the Burgundian medieval world.

In the medieval period a troop attached to that duke built a defensive enclosure at Selore, originally bounded by four curtain walls and four towers. The fortification was assigned to guard the western flank of the County of Charolais. On several occasions the Burgundian force stationed at Selore halted the armies of the dukes of Bourbon who were based at Arcy, episodes that are linked to shifts in the duchy’s frontier. Five hundred metres east of the enclosure a raised earthwork known as the motte of Puthiere held an observation tower that looked out over the Arconce plain.

The estate entered a new phase in 1563 when the Baudinot de la Salle family bought the fief of Selore and Puthiere. Guillaume Baudinot erected the château’s central block in the second half of the sixteenth century; a large Burgundian fireplace from that campaign of building remains recorded within the main house. In 1642 the property passed to Guillaume’s son, who added substantial service buildings, and then to a nephew, Isaac Baudinot. Palamède Baudinot inherited in 1675; he founded a chapel originally dedicated to Saint Maurice, later rededicated to Sainte Élisabeth of Thuringia, he built the two lateral wings of the residence and commissioned painted ceilings in the Venetian manner that survive in later restorations.

Ownership changed several times from the early eighteenth century. In 1702 Marie Lenet transferred the domain to her nephew Henri Lenet de Larrey; in 1711 Henri left it to Louis‑Bernard Duprat, and two years later it passed to Jean‑Antoine Lenet. Antoine‑Ignace Lenet sold Selore in 1754 to Philibert Verchère, marquis d’Arcelot. In 1777 Gabrielle Le Cocq sold the fully furnished estate to Joseph de Monteynard, who carried out a comprehensive interior refitting in the Louis‑XVI fashion. During the Revolutionary period the property belonged to Henri‑Juste‑François de Monteynard. In 1814 Baron Jean‑Baptiste Grégoire Delaroche acquired the château and died there in 1845.

Later owners included the comtes de Saint Cyr d’Antioche and, subsequently, the Pfetten‑Iseux family, descendants of the builders. The château is privately owned by the Pfetten‑Iseux family and was registered as a historic monument on 28 February 2007. The Venetian ceiling paintings were rediscovered by the current owner and underwent a careful restoration after that registration.