Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de Montvillers is a neoclassical building built in 1770 in Bazeilles, in the Ardennes, for Jean Abraham André Poupart de Neuflize, a rich fabricator in Sedan. The latter, annoyed in 1769 by Louis XV, transformed an old platinum factory into a crowd before building this castle as a country residence. The alleged architect, Claude Jean-Baptiste Jallier de Savault, student of Soufflot, designs a stone building of the Vosges, decorated with Masonic symbols, reflecting the influence of intellectual circles of the time.

The estate was inherited by the Poupart family, one of whom became Baron d'Empire in 1810. In 1837 he entered the Schneider family by the marriage of Eugene Schneider with a granddaughter of Poupart. The castle, witness of the 1870 war, successively became a religious school, orphanage (1942-1973), then a hotel school after its acquisition by the Ardennes department in 1986. In 1999, the Sports Club Sedan Ardennes acquired its seat, before a fire ravaged it in 2004.

The architecture of the castle is distinguished by its central rotunda on the park side, its ionic columns and its Masonic frieze. Nearby, the crowd, rare preserved example, and stone orangery complete the whole. The site illustrates the alliance between industrial heritage – with its machines operated by the Givonne – and aristocratic residence, typical of Lights. Michel Gallet described him as "one of the most beautiful castles in Louis XVI style", highlighting his inspiration from the 18th century architectural competitions.

The treadmill, built of stone and stone, has openings adapted to its industrial use (segmentary arch doors, croup windows). Orangery, on the ground floor, has doors in the middle of the hanger and a dardian roof. These buildings, although transformed over the centuries, bear witness to the manufacturing activity that made Sedan, the historical capital of the sheet in France.

The castle welcomed notable figures, such as the Marquis de La Fayette around 1777, then young officer in Metz. Its history reflects the social and economic changes of the Ardennes: from the industrial boom of the eighteenth century to its decline, to the conflicts of the nineteenth century and the conversions of the twentieth century. Today, despite the fire of 2004, it remains a symbol of French neoclassical and industrial heritage.

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