Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The château d'Hutaud, also called château de Foucaud, was built in the 17th century by Jacques de Foucaud and completed by his brother Arnaud de Foucaud from 1658. As early as 1663, the castle, the reading pavilion, the terraces and the large pond already existed. The building passed in 1722 to the family of Huteau by marriage, and the Count Jean-Louis of Huteau grew up before the French Revolution. In the 19th century, it was passed on to the Puységur family by the marriage of Valentine d'Huteau with Bernard de Puységur in 1870, before being sold to the city of Gaillac in 1903 for 120,000 francs after ten years of negotiations.

The castle, initially unused after its acquisition, was partially destroyed in 1925, while its communes became douch baths. Ranked a historic monument in 1935 for its reading pavilion, then in 1945 for the entire park and castle, it houses the Gaillac Museum of Fine Arts. During the occupation, he served as a hospital for the Germans, before being restored in 1995. Its park, freely accessible, houses cultural events and an original hydraulic system feeding basins and fountains.

Inspired by the villa of Este, the castle combines classic style and local red brick. Its symmetrical facades, adorned with semicircular frontons, open onto Italian terraces on the Tarn side and a large park on the north side. The estate also includes neo-classical stables, an 18th century orangery, a green theatre and a recent rose garden. The reading pavilion, classified in 1935, is distinguished by its four curved roof turrets and its sculptures of river deities.

The castle is represented in paintings by Jean-Louis Petit, preserved at the Musée de Gaillac. His artistic and architectural history is documented by works such as Yves Bruand (1985) and Alain Soriano (2006), highlighting his cultural and heritage role in Occitanie.

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