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Origin and history

The Château de Versigny, located in the Oise department in the Hauts-de-France region, has its origins between the 15th and 18th centuries. Originally, it was a seigneurial estate belonging to the Laon family, then sold in 1401 to Henri de Marle, future Chancellor of France. His descendants, the Hector de Marle, retained the seigneury until the end of the seventeenth century, holding prestigious positions as provost of the merchants or president of the Chamber of Accounts. The medieval castle, gradually replaced, then had a closed courtyard, an asymmetric house and a lower courtyard, with an adjacent farm called the "Little Hotel".

From 1830 to 1840, Jean Baptiste Isidore and Aglaé Louise Léonore de Junquières undertook a major transformation of the castle, giving it its present appearance. The asymmetric wings were replaced by wings perpendicular to the house, and the facades adopted a neoclassical style inspired by Angel-Jacques Gabriel. The coat of arms of the Junquières and Rouffiac families, on the south and north wings, recall this period of renovation. The French park, attributed without proof to André Le Nôtre, was built between the 16th and 18th centuries, with ordered perspectives and factories like a cooler, a cave and a waterfall.

The castle played a key role during modern conflicts. During the First World War, General Mangin established his headquarters there in 1918 to prepare for the second battle of the Marne, a decisive turning point against the Germans. The Versigny Conference, held on October 16, 1918, decided to enlist the 10th French army. During the Second World War, the estate was requisitioned by the Luftwaffe, then ransacked by an SS brigade in retaliation against the engagement in the Resistance of Jacques de Kersaint, owner and member of the Publican network. After 1945, despite the lack of public funding for war damage, Kersaint's family undertook a 60-year renovation, still under way.

The park, registered with the Historic Monuments in 2009, initially extended over a hundred hectares, mixing French and English. Although partially abandoned in the 20th century, its restoration began in the 1980s, despite the damage caused by the storms of 1987, 1993 and 1999. Today, the castle and its park, open to the visit, bear witness to this rich history, between nobility, architecture and military commitments.

The town of Versigny, crossed by La Nonette, also houses the church of Saint-Martin (XVth-XVIth centuries), classified as Monument Historic, and the Calvary of Drozelles. The village, rural and close to the Oise-Pays Regional Natural Park of France, preserves traces of its medieval and seigneurial past, while having played a discreet but significant role in the two world wars.

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