Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de la Fontaine-du-Houx, located in Bézu-la-Forêt, Eure, has its origins in a royal Carolingian estate. From the 9th century, Charles le Chauve stayed there several times, writing official acts and receiving emissaries. The site, then called Basiu, became a palatium (Royal Palace), as evidenced by the royal diplomas dated this place. This royal estate was later transformed into a castle, with remains of the 14th century still visible today, including the chapel Saint Eutrope.

At the beginning of the 14th century, during the reign of Philippe le Bel, the royal mansion of the Fontaine-du-Houx housed a royal glass factory, one of the first in France specializing in the production of glass dishes (plane glass sheets). Directed by the master glassmaker Gobert (or Gaubert) in 1302, this manufacture depended directly on the royal domain. This castle, renovated in the 15th and 18th centuries, thus illustrates both a Carolingian political heritage and a medieval industrial innovation.

The present castle preserves elements from the 15th and 18th centuries, with a central body modified during this last period. The chapel of Saint Eutrope, isolated from the rest of the building, remains the only intact architectural witness of the fourteenth century. Protected as historical monuments since 1971 (façades, roofs and commons), the site has also been listed as a picturesque site since 1942, highlighting its heritage and landscape importance.

The history of the castle is also linked to major royal figures: Charles le Chauve, who made it a place of power in the ninth century, and Philippe le Bel, who developed an innovative glass industry there. These historical strata make it an emblematic monument of Normandy, mixing Carolingian heritage, medieval architecture and traces of a pioneering state industry.

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