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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The château du Herces, built in 1772 by architect Jacques-Denis Antoine for Charles Robert Boutin, intendant of finance, embodies neoclassical elegance. The latter, after acquiring the estate in 1773, entrusted his transformation to Antoine and his assistant Cyr-Jean Vivenel, creating a building with four distinct facades, inspired by the Petit Trianon. The castle, surrounded by dry moat and a park partially remodelled in the 19th century, preserves original interior decorations, including panelling and an unchanged distribution.

The land of Herces, attested from 1137 as property of Amaury III de Montfort, Count of Évreux, housed a first medieval castle between the 14th and 15th centuries, under the family of Simon de Richebourg. In the 17th century, the fief passed to the knights of the Buc, then was acquired in 1710 by Louis Colbert, Count of Lignières, before being sold in 1760 to M. de Beaumanoir. Boutin's sister, Marie Charlotte Madeleine, had the neighbouring castle of Montboissier erected simultaneously by the royal architect Nicolas Marie Potain.

Partially classified as historical monuments (dairy and pigeon-house in 1955, castle registered in 1950), the estate includes brick and stone communes, as well as a farm adorned with a portico with wooden columns. It was owned in 2009 by Sheikhs Emiratis and bears witness to the fascists of the Ancien Régime and the influence of the 18th-century Parisian architects, as evidenced by the works of Michel Gallet and the local parish archives.

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