Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Bel-Air Castle, located to the north of the village of Pertre en Ille-et-Vilaine, is a building built in two major phases. The first campaign, conducted from 1870 to 1873 by architect Jacques Mellet for Louis de Legge, gave birth to a small neo-Gothic castle with the appearance of a seaside villa. Only a pavilion and a circular tower of that time remain today. This initial project, considered modest, will be radically redesigned by the sponsor's son, Paul de Legge, who entrusts to Henri Mellet – a childhood friend and younger son of Jacques – an ambitious reconstruction between 1910 and 1920.

The second campaign triples the surface of the castle by adopting a complex two-winged plan arranged at 135°, articulated around a square pavilion, in a Louis XIII style. Henri Mellet includes a gallery, a staircase of honour and a neo-Gothic chapel, where capitals caricature the policies that passed the 1905 law on the separation of the Church and the State. This architectural manifesto, completed in 1928 with its park, embodies the monarchist ideology of its sponsors and marks the social ascent of the Legge, allied to the powerful Hay family of the Netumières. The estate, registered with the Historic Monuments in 2001, also includes a French-style garden, a wood, a pond and statues melted by the furnaces of the Val d'Osne.

The castle rises to the site of a former mansion, once flanked by a square tower and a pigeon house, surrounded by French gardens and walks. The landscape architects M. de la Villartaye de Vitré and M. Redont de Paris design the terraces and exterior fittings, while the statues adorning the platforms come from the Bellanger establishments or are famous copies. Together, described by François Loyer as "the last great castle of France", illustrates the continuity of the firm Mellet, where father and son intervene on this site, one of Henri's most ambitious.

Registration for Historic Monuments in 2001 protects not only the castle in its entirety, but also its park with its statuary, enclosed vegetable garden, wood, pond and avenue tracks. The facades and roofs of the outbuildings (house of the guardian, former mansion "Guinefol", porterie, commons, clock and well) are also preserved. This site, both residential and symbolic, reflects the political and social tensions of its time, while embodying the artisanal and landscape excellence of the early twentieth century.

External links