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After the 15th century, the Château de Langeais had a variety of owners, who took hardly any care of it. Only Christophe Baron, its proprietor from April 1839, undertook restoration work and bought a collection of furniture for the premises. Unfortunately, his son later sold a large part of this collection to pay off heavy debts. After the son died, the château was acquired by an influential businessman named Jacques Siegfried.
Born at Mulhouse in 1840, Jacques Siegfried was not only a banker but was also charged by the French government with finding the best means of developing France’s export trade.
He had a passion for medieval art and, having bought château on 28th July 1886, devoted almost 20 years of his life to restoring and refurnishing it. The aim he set himself was to reconstitute the living quarters of the nobility at the end of the Middle Ages. In 1904, he donated the château and its rich collection to the Institut de France, which still owns the property. |
