Serrant: The Slave Trader's Château, and a Library of 12,000 Books
Pays de la Loire, France
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Château de Serrant
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225
XP
+100 France
= 325 total
1 day
Serrant: The Slave Trader's Château, and a Library of 12,000 Books
225 + 100 XP
On 28 June 1749 Serrant was bought for 824,000 livres by Antoine Walsh, the biggest slave shipowner in Nantes, from a family of exiled Irish Jacobites: he fitted out 48 ships between 1734 and 1759, 28 of them for the triangular trade, and in 1748 founded the Société d'Angola, which on its own controlled 28 per cent of all Nantes slaving voyages. In 1745 he financed and shipped Charles Edward Stuart's expedition to Scotland. On 15 August 1751 he sold Serrant on to his brother François-Jacques, and it was the Walshes who redecorated the interiors and laid out the English park. The library of about 12,000 old volumes is the work of a later owner, the duc de La Trémoïlle, who with his wife built the château's present 20,000-book collection. The Empire bedroom was furnished by the Countess Walsh for an imperial visit in 1808 that was cut short — Napoleon got as far as admiring the grand staircase.
Required Activities
1
of 4
Book onto the guided tour so you actually get into the library, and find the three sets that show what a 19th-century duke thought a gentleman should own: Diderot's Encyclopédie, the Description de l'Égypte from Napoleon's expedition, and Piranesi's engravings of Rome
2
of 4
In the Empire bedroom, find the furniture the Countess Walsh ordered specially for Napoleon and Josephine's visit — Jacob-Desmalter, Marçion, Thomire, Canova — then go back out to the double-flight staircase under its coffered vaults, which is the part of the house the emperor actually stopped to admire
3
of 4
Go down to the basements for the kitchens and the servants' refectory, kept as a working château kitchen of about 1900, and count how many people it took to feed the floor above
4
of 4
In the chapel Jules Hardouin-Mansart added to the south wing, find the marble mausoleum of the marquis de Vaubrun, cut by Antoine Coysevox to a design by Charles Le Brun and put in place at the start of the 18th century — the one thing at Serrant made by the sculptors who worked at Versailles
Book onto the guided tour so you actually get into the library, and find the three sets that show what a 19th-century duke thought a gentleman should own: Diderot's Encyclopédie, the Description de l'Égypte from Napoleon's expedition, and Piranesi's engravings of Rome
In the Empire bedroom, find the furniture the Countess Walsh ordered specially for Napoleon and Josephine's visit — Jacob-Desmalter, Marçion, Thomire, Canova — then go back out to the double-flight staircase under its coffered vaults, which is the part of the house the emperor actually stopped to admire
Go down to the basements for the kitchens and the servants' refectory, kept as a working château kitchen of about 1900, and count how many people it took to feed the floor above
In the chapel Jules Hardouin-Mansart added to the south wing, find the marble mausoleum of the marquis de Vaubrun, cut by Antoine Coysevox to a design by Charles Le Brun and put in place at the start of the 18th century — the one thing at Serrant made by the sculptors who worked at Versailles
Before you go
Visits are guided — check opening days before going.
Serrant opens from early April to 11 November, plus a handful of December afternoons around Christmas, and is shut the rest of the winter. There are two tickets: the self-guided one covers about fifteen rooms but not the library or the prestige bedrooms, so if the library is why you came, book the guided tour — roughly hourly from 10.30am, with a break over lunch.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
225 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
325 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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