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Origin and history

The Château de Petit-Bourg, located in Évry-Courcouronnes (formerly Évry-sur-Seine) in Île-de-France, was originally built in the early 17th century for André Courtin, canon of Notre-Dame de Paris, then completed around 1635 by Jean Galland. This first building, enriched with statues, gardens, fountains and waterfalls, was already famous in 1647 for its beauty and ornamentation, rivaling the neighbouring castle of Frémont. It served as a stop on the royal road linking Paris to Fontainebleau, attracting the nobility and the courtyard.

Around 1650, the bishop of Langres, Louis Barbier de La Rivière, had the gardens redesigned by François Mansart and received members of the court, including Cardinal Chigi in 1664. The estate became a popular resting place, especially for the royal family in 1666. In 1695, the Marquise de Montespan acquired the castle and entrusted André Le Nôtre with the creation of new gardens, including a large waterfall visible from the Seine. These developments, described in a 1696 plan, were designed to impress travellers between Paris and Fontainebleau.

From 1707 to 1736, the Duke of Antin, son of Mme de Montespan, undertook a complete reconstruction of the castle by architect Pierre Cailleteau (known as Laassurance), making it a sumptuous princely residence. The Czar Peter the Great stayed there in 1717, and Louis XV with Marie Leszczyńska made frequent stays there. The watercolours of Jean Chaufourier (1730) bear witness to his architectural climax, with decorations signed by François-Antoine Vasse. After the Duke's death, the castle was demolished in 1750 and replaced by a neoclassical building designed by Jean-Michel Chevotet for the widow Chauvelin.

In the 18th century, the Marquis de Poyanne received Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette in 1774 during a military review. The Revolution saw the estate move to the Duchess of Bourbon, Bathild of Orleans, known for its mystical interests. In the 19th century, banker Alexandre Aguado, mayor of Évry, welcomed Rossini, who partially composed Guillaume Tell (1828). However, the arrival of the railway in 1840 split the park, leading to the sale and fragmentation of the estate. The castle, transformed into a prison colony around 1844, was finally burned in 1944 by the Germans and razed.

Today, there are only a few buildings of the communes and the grip of the old gardens, descendants to the Seine. The hall of honour, bordered by chestnut trees, is the last visible vestige of this castle which was a symbol of the aristocratic fascist and landscape transformations of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Photographs of the early twentieth century and old plans, such as the one of 1696, allow us to reconstruct its breadth and architectural richness.

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