A French castle with a large museum of airplanes, cars, motorcycles and miniatures

@ElentirENG ES 8·01·2024 · 23:33 0

France is a country famous, among other things, for its numerous castles. Many of them have become major tourist attractions.

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Near Boueaune in the historic region of Burgundy is the Savigny-les-Beaune Castle, built in 1340 by Marshal Jean de Frolois for Duke Odo IV of Burgundy. The castle was dismantled in 1478 following the invasion of Burgundy by the French King Louis XI. After many years of neglect, it was restored in the 17th century by the Bouhier family, making it their residence. In 1689 it passed into the hands of the De Migieu family, and in 1940 it was declared a historic monument.

In the 1970s, the castle's assets were dismantled and sold, losing most of its historic furnishings. Finally, this old castle was bought in 1979 by Michel Pont, who began work to turn it into what it is today: a museum dedicated to mechanics, which is maintained today by Michel's son.

The museum has some truly amazing exhibits. The most striking are those on aeronautical themes: the castle has a huge collection of almost 100 aircraft of different nationalities, including a French Mirage IV, 11 MiGs of different types and 4 aircraft from the Patrouille de France, the French Air Force's aerobatic squadron.

This formidable collection of aircraft was acquired over the years by Michel Pont, and today it is one of the largest private collections of fighter planes in the world. The best thing is that it can be visited every day, in the morning and afternoon, as the collection functions as a museum. You can find more information on the website of this castle: www.chateau-savigny.com.

In addition to aircraft, the castle also houses a colossal collection of some 250 motorcycles, manufactured between 1902 and 1960 in various countries. This wealth of content makes the Château de Savigny-les-Beaune one of the largest motorcycle museums in Europe.

As if these contents were not enough to attract fans of mechanics, this castle has an excellent collection of 35 cars dedicated to Abarth prototypes, one of the best collections of this type in the world.

If car enthusiasts didn't already have enough reasons to visit this site, the castle now has one more: a collection of 30 historic fire engines, built between 1905 and 1984, plus 30 tractors and a hovercraft, as well as a large collection of 8,000 miniatures, including 1,200 1:18 scale motorcycle models, 3,400 1:72 scale aircraft models and 600 1:43 scale car models.

Well, I don't know what you think, but my ideal concept of a museum is much more like this than the Louvre, with all due respect to the famous museum in Paris... You can see here a video about this formidable museum published by Filmaviator 8 years ago: