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Origin and history

Aubiry Castle, located east of Ceret (Pyrénées-Orientales), is a neo-baroque eclectic building erected between 1893 and 1904. Sponsored by industrialist Pierre Bardou-Job for his son Justin, it was designed by the Danish architect Viggo Dorph-Petersen, installed in the area. Pierre Bardou-Job, inventor of the cigarette paper JOB, died in 1892 before the beginning of the works, leaving the project to his heir. The specifications were finalised on 16 December 1892, marking the beginning of an ambitious construction.

The castle, with a living area of 2,500 m2, is housed in a five-hectare park with English gardens, greenhouses (allocated wrongly to Gustave Eiffel but realized by the Guillot-Pelletier Establishments in 1907), and an abundant interior decoration of art nouveau style. The greenhouses, characteristic of the metal architecture of the early twentieth century, comprise three 16-metre-high glass domes connected by galleries, for a total length of 108 meters. The estate also includes a chapel, a gardener's house, and an oratory.

In 1973 the castle became the property of the De Pra family, an industrialist from eastern France. In the 2000s, he was at the heart of controversy related to unauthorized works (2021-2022), including the partial destruction of his classified wall, despite an inscription to historical monuments since 2006. These events, which were described by the DRAC as "unfortunate", opposed the town hall of Céret, the owners, and the Association for the Protection of the Art and Historical Heritage of Roussillon.

The château served as a setting for several films, among which was the mouthwater (1959) and the Count of Monte Cristo (2024), with Pierre Niney. In 2021, he hosted the festival Les Déferlantes Sud de France, despite logistical controversies (chaotic access, 20,000 festivalgoers). The 2022 edition was moved to Perpignan because of these problems. Between 2024 and 2025, the park hosted a Chinese cultural event, Splendour of China, marked by financial difficulties.

Since 2006, the castle, its greenhouses, its park, and its outbuildings (except wine cellars) have been protected as historical monuments. The facades and roofs of the cellars, as well as the right of way of the estate, are also covered by this inscription. The site remains a symbol of the region's industrial and architectural heritage, combining family history, art nouveau, and contemporary preservation issues.

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