Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The château de Laprée has its origins in a former seigneury dependent on Quiestède, mentioned in 1425 under Jean de La Viéville. In the 16th century, the land passed to the Le Roy, family of jurists anoblia in 1605. In 1669, Jean-Jacques II de Lencquesaing, receiver of Artois's aides and recently anobli, acquired the debt seigneury, including an old feudal castle surrounded by ditches and a drawbridge. He began work in 1676, symbolizing his social ascent.

The present castle was built in 1740 by Dominique-Jean-Jacques de Lencquesaing, after the fire of his residence in Saint-Omer. Designed by architect Jean-Louis Chipart, it blends bricks, stones and sandstones, with a bluish roof. The building separately organizes reception, privacy and service spaces, while the gardens, designed by "master May", adopt a French style. An adjoining chapel, decorated with sculptures from the Piette workshop, reinforces the sacred character of the place.

In the 19th century, Louis-Dominique-Arthur de Lencquesaing radically modernized the estate: it removes feudal symbols (bridge-levis, moats), redraws the interiors and transforms the English-style gardens, around a pond created by filling the ditches. In 1892 Alberic-Louis de Lencquesaing raised the castle to house his large family, adding gables and a service wing. The family archives, preserved on site, offer a rare testimony about the artesian nobility under the Old Regime.

The castle, still owned by the Lencquesaing, was restored in the 1980s and 2009. He visited the Journées du Patrimoine and preserved remarkable elements: 18th century frescoes, plaster decorations of Saint-Omer, and a chapel with false carved columns. The facades and roof of the 1676 pavilion have been classified since 1986.

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