Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

Boulains Castle is a neo-classical building built from 1867 for Count René Boussard de la Chapelle, mayor of Échoboulains, on the site of an old castle of 1810. Composed of local stones and bricks, it includes two wings, a slate roof, and a French garden with basin. Between 1880 and 1890, hunting houses, covered with Morvan tiles, were added. In 1892, Georges Léopold Halphen acquired the estate, expanded and built a windmill and a south wing. At his death, the castle passed to his daughter Louise and his son-in-law Émile Deutsch de la Meurthe, then to their four daughters.

During World War I, the castle served as a military hospital. In 1931, Suzanne Deutsch de la Meurthe, passionate about aviation, gave it to the state to make it a home of convalescence dedicated to the wounded of aviation, civil and military. Managed by the Maison des Ailes Foundation, the site was transformed in 1932, but the German requisition in 1940 and looting ended this vocation. The estate was then entrusted to the Air Force in 1942.

From 1942 to 1995, the castle houses the Maison des Ailes, an educational institution for young girls whose fathers, airmen, were killed, injured or ill during the Second World War. Approximately 2,400 students are welcomed before it is closed. From 1995 to 2011, the estate became a medical centre for seriously ill children, run by the association L-Envol. Since 2011, after the failure of plans to reopen a convalescence house for aviators, the owner foundation has decided to dissolve the institution and return the estate to the state.

The castle park, pre-invented in 1996 at the Inventory of Historic Monuments, extends over more than 130 hectares, including communes, a greenhouse, a vegetable garden, a farm, meadows and woods. The site bears witness to a history combining architectural heritage, social commitment and aeronautical memory.

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