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Origin and history

The castle of Aubigny, situated on the former Mosellane commune of Aubigny (now attached to Coincy), is mentioned from the beginning of the 15th century. The seigneury belonged to the families of Vy and Roucel from 1404 to 1701. In 1630 it was devastated by Swedish troops during the Thirty Years' War and rebuilt in the 18th century. Jean-Nicolas de Roucel owned a strong house there according to an admission of 1682.

In the 18th century, the seigneury passed to the Clinghant families of Aubigny, Baignault, then Le Duchat. In 1814, the Belchamps family inherited it by exchange with the Grange-aux-Bois estate. Madame de Belchamps had the towers removed in 1830 and renovated the dining room. During the 1870 war, the castle served as a Prussian hospital, a period documented by the film Aubigny, Memoirs of 1870 (2011).

In 1893 François-Nicolas-Félix de Belchamps bequeathed the estate to his daughter Marguerite, wife of General de Cugnac. The latter, a military figure and departmental president of French Remembrance, received the Marshals Lyautey and Foch. During the Second World War, the Germans made it a Mädchenschule (school for girls). It was restored in 1944 by Marguerite de Cugnac. In 1956, their daughter Chantal married the Count of Vasselot de Régné, whose descendants (family of Ornellas) now own it.

The castle, which has been listed as a Historic Monument since 1993, is distinguished by its low-slope roofed house, its 16th-century meneau window, and its garden enclosed with three-centered cone-cut iifs. A restoration in 2012 restored its 18th century roof in red canal tiles. The gardens, unique in Moselle, open to the public during Heritage Days.

The architecture thus mixes medieval traces (window to meneau), reconstructions of the eighteenth century, and modifications of the nineteenth (deletion of towers). The successive noble families — Roucel, Belchamps, Cugnac — left their mark on them, between wars, inheritances and renovations. The estate also illustrates the various uses of the Lorraine castles: seigneurial residence, military hospital, school under occupation, and then place of memory.

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