Bellevue no more: French chateau accidentally destroyed, Russian owner 'shocked'

[dipsydoodle]

An 18th century French chateau owned by a Russian businessman has been demolished by accident near Bordeaux. Bellevue, one of the five architectural landmarks in the neighborhood, was bulldozed into the ground by mistake, instead of being renovated.

­"I didn't know the chateau was destroyed, I'm shocked," its owner Dmitry Stroskin told Sud-Ouest.fr website.

The Russian reportedly runs a logistics company in Warsaw exporting products from France to Poland and Russia. His 13,000m² chateau, situated in the heart of the Bordeaux vineyards, has been flattened, with next to nothing left but a fraction of the building.

The castle once boasted two large rooms with fireplaces, accommodating up to 200 people. Chateau Bellevue, 12km east of Bordeaux, had been rented before being sold to Stroskin.

http://rt.com/art-and-culture/news/chateau-bellevue-accidentally-destroyed-076/

Where did our chateau go? French village loses its landmark.

Residents of Yvrac were baffled to find that the vast Bellevue chateau, with ornate stone balustrades and 13,000 square metres of rooms surrounded by vineyards had been reduced to a mound of mud last month, apparently bulldozed while a construction firm were supposed to be restoring it to past glory.

Dmitry Stroskin, a Russian businessman, had bought Bellevue and secured a planning permit to destroy one small outhouse while repairing the historic main chateau which was in a bad state. Stroskin, who works in Warsaw, told the local paper Sud Ouest: "I didn't know the chateau had been destroyed, I'm in shock. Even if it was in a very bad state, I had wanted to renovate it."

He said he had fallen in love with the historic building while looking for a house in France and vowed he would now build an exact replica – a project that would take two years. He told the paper he understood the "turmoil" of the local community but said he would not be looking to blame anyone for the destruction as "the damage has been done".

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The town hall has lodged a legal complaint and state investigators will now try to establish what happened. All building work at the site has been halted by local authorities and the planning permit revoked.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/05/where-did-our-chateau-go

[frazzled]

1. Oops

Jeebus, I've had workpeople screw up work before, but no one ever came close to demolishing my massive, historical chateau when all I wanted was some renovation. (Oops again, I just live in a condo apartment.)

[jsr]

2. Maybe he wanted to "renovate" with the insurance money from the "accident"

[Adsos Letter]

3. Wow...wonder who got make THAT phone call...