Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

Villiers Castle, located in Poissy in the Yvelines, was built in the 1860s in a new Louis XIII style. It replaces a hunting lodge mentioned on maps of the eighteenth century. Baron Léonce Hély d'Oissel, master of petitions to the Conseil d'État and mayor of Poissy, was the initial sponsor, along with his son Frédéric. The estate then moved to Ségur's family through the marriage of Thérèse Hély d'Oissel with Pierre de Ségur in 1877.

During the 1870 war, the castle served as a hospital for the wounded. In the 1880s, architect Théophile Bourgeois added commons and interior remodeling, incorporating stained glass windows and woodwork decorated with the coat of arms of the Hély d'Oissel and Ségur families. The estate was fragmented in 1928: the Kuhlmann Establishments acquired the castle and its park to make it a leisure centre, while the Agache and Savoy families built a mansion and the Savoye villa respectively.

In 1939, a wing was added by architect Germain Debré. Purchased by the town hall of Poissy in 1976, the castle becomes an aerated center, then a place of exhibitions and receptions. In 2012, he set the scene for Jean-Pierre Mocky's film Dors mon bunny. Today, only the 12-hectare park, including an educational farm, is accessible to the public. The castle hosts municipal or private events, as well as historical reconstructions, such as that of 2014 for the centenary of the First World War.

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