Château de Sully

The Château de Sully, situated between Autun and Beaune, is the largest of the Renaissance châteaux of southern Burgundy. Paired outbuildings of a more vernacular character face each other across a grassed forecourt, while to the rear is the vegetable garden, fenced by fruit trees. The château is approached by an axial stone bridge across its moat. The façades express the traditionally defensive character of the rez-de-chaussée, the ground floor, and the richer, more open aspect of the piano nobile, articulated by pilasters. Under the central pediment that breaks the line of a traditional sloping slate roof, the arched portal is scaled to admit riders and carriages. Four similarly-treated ranges, flanked by matching angled corner towers with pyramidal roofs and surrounded by the moat, enclose a Renaissance courtyard built for the Maréchal de Saulx-Tavanes, confidante of Catherine de' Medici.