Château de Saint-Point - Lamartine
Château de Saint-Point, a listed historic monument, was once the family home of the poet and politician Alphonse de Lamartine.
Saint-Point, a listed 12th and 14th century château, became the family home of poet and politician Alphonse de Lamartine in 1820.
Considered to be the father of Romanticism in literature, he was also one of the founders of the Second Republic, helping to abolish slavery, the death penalty and universal suffrage.
When he married an English aristocrat, Mary-Ann Birch, he inherited the Château de Saint-Point and set about restoring it in the Anglo-Saxon Gothic style he had discovered on a trip to England. Lamartine had a four-lobed gallery built, a Gothic porch and English-style gardens laid out.
A visit to the Château de Saint-Point includes Alphonse de Lamartine's bedroom and study, furnished as they were at the time, the château kitchen, the 18th-century dining room, the study of his private secretary and the Lamartine Museum. Located in the grand salon on the ground floor, the museum houses the poet's personal objects and souvenirs, preserved by his niece, Valentine de Cessiat.
Visitors can also explore the English-style garden, the orchard, the vegetable patch, the old greenhouse and the poet's family vault, which he had built when his mother died. It is located on the edge of the château, next to the Romanesque church of Saint-Point, which features two paintings by Marianne de Lamartine.
A poetry trail immersing visitors in the poet's work has also been set up in the château grounds.