On September 16th and 17th 2006 the doors of the castle opened for the 23rd edition of the European Days of the Patrimony.
“Keep our Patrimony Alive” was the theme proposed by the Ministry of Culture to those who intended to welcome visitors.
With this idea in mind artistic events were presented at the Royal Castle of Quierzy where both professional as well as occasional artists were invited.
The Place of Animals in the Middle Ages
12 panels 120cm x 120cm
From the animal as a tool to the animal as the provider of resources: wool, silk, dyes, feathers, bone, horns, skin and leather, guts, tallow, grease…
From the wild animal to the pet with menageries and trained animals or the animal seen as a mirror of man: show animals and contemplation of the sky
Animals in the first texts: faith and knowledge, society, the hunt…
Fantasy animals and the menagerie as a first means of communication
Fables, tales and social satires of the Middle Ages.
The animals’ bestiary as an exhaustive visit of the medieval world.
Through the study of the Bestiary the life of all the medieval society can be reconstituted, the Lords, the peasants, the bourgeois…
Mores, customs, fashion as well as superstitions, feeding and clothing habits, the evolution of knowledge, nothing escapes our insight.
It is an ideal tool to better understand Medieval society as well as what we inherited from this past: it is stunning to realize how much of it we still use today.
The Heraldic Bestiary
Exhibition on the 1st floor of the Roland Tower
The weapons of the Valiant Knights, how to become a knight, who can become a knight…
Learn the language, the colours and the rules of heraldic partitions.
Animals are, along with geometrical shapes, the first heraldic figures. Later will come plants, objects like the “bezant” (a coin), the fleur de lys and monuments. These figures are called the charge of the shield.
Some thirty species of animals either wild or domesticated or mystical, terrestrial or marine are present on medieval heraldry, even the cod and the herring are among shied charges.
Have fantasy beasts and dragons ever existed?
Animals of the forest and the wild boar: has our attitude changed regarding this animal since the Middle Ages?
The exhibition in the Roland Tower admirably completes the preceding one and takes us deep in the Middle Ages and the Knight stories.
Sandra and Nathalie: “Bella Sorte”
The medieval ballads, dances like the “pavane”, musical jousts they presented are, we hope, but a beginning in the long story between the castle and this group who will come again for everyone’s enjoyment.
We’ll let you know about their next appearance (bellasorte@hotmail.com)
A visit by Jean de la Fontaine
Alain and Caroline
Or rather by a famous writer of the Grand Siècle passing by… (was he not Maître des Forêts in our region?)
While creating his own personal bestiary and writing his fables he’d come to visit his young wife whom he’d somewhat abandoned…
She as well was invited at the castle!
Thos who hid behind a curtain certainly appreciated a lovely sentimental contest*
Written and performed by Alain Lagneau and la Compagnie du Chaudron (lagneau.alain@wanadoo.fr)
The legend of the unicorn, the tales of Charlemagne
Bérangère and the unicorn
Entering the Jardin des Simples, where in the Middle Ages the fabulous creatures of the Garden of Love used to roam freely, visitors where in a way disappointed to only see them as statues of bronze or stone. But with a light effort of imagination, they closed their eyes… and here they were running and playing all over the place.
Here came Pegasus the multi headed winged horse… Then, there was Salamander, then the Mermaid singing in the pond… Phoenix kept rebirthing from its ashes… Centaurs made an apparition and then the white Unicorn…
The Unicorn… Whet a marvelous beast. Those who approached her tried to capture her while she was resting…
The visitors listened to the tales
Charlemagne’s falcon, the fox and the squirrel, the werewolf, the Seven-headed beast, St George and the Dragon, the Lady of Tornagel, Siegfried and the Dragon among many others…
A magical moment, as magical as the place and the fantastic characters that inhabit it.
Our thanks to those who do not appear on the photos
To our hostesses who had the task of gathering the few coins that helped to house and feed the lad who wanted to become a knight and our wonderful storyteller.
To the numerous medievalist friends and the equally numerous friends who enjoy visiting us every year as well as to the new ones who will have taken with them lovely memories of those magical days.
Jacqueline and Amélie
Château de Quiersy
Charles Martel choisit d'y finir ses jours, en 741.
Il a préparé l'avènement de son fils Pépin le Bref, dont l'épouse, Bertrade de Laon - plus connue sous le nom de Berthe aux grands pieds, va mettre au monde l'année suivante à Quierzy le futur Charlemagne.
Pépin le Bref reçoit à Quierzy en 754 le pape Etienne II et signe avec lui la donation de l'exarchat de Ravenne, reconnaissant aux papes un pouvoir temporel qui perdurera mille ans. Quelques jours plus tard, Etienne II sacre Pépin roi des Francs à Saint Denis.
Son successeur Charlemagne transforme progressivement la villa en palais et c'est sur ses fondations que s'élève le château actuel. Sacré empereur d'Occident par le pape Léon III à Rome en 800, il invite le pape à Quierzy en 804 et renforce les liens entre la Papauté et la France.
Son petit-fils, Charles le Chauve, écrit à Quierzy une nouvelle page de l'Histoire, en y signant le capitulaire de 877 qui établit l'hérédité des offices de la noblesse : il restera en vigueur jusqu'à la Révolution française, neuf siècles plus tard.
