Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Ormesson Castle was built from 1578 on the initiative of Louis Picot, lord of Santeny, on the site of an old building in the town of Amboile (now Ormesson-sur-Marne). He briefly passed into the hands of Cardinal René de Birague before being redeemed in 1598 by Louis II Picot, and then ceded in 1619 to Nicolas Le Prévost, king's adviser. In 1632, the estate returned to André Lefèvre of Ormesson, son-in-law of Le Prévost, marking the beginning of a long family possession. Around 1660, Olivier Lefèvre d'Ormesson, eldest son, called on André Le Nôtre to rearrange the gardens, consolidating the prestige of the place.

In 1758, Marie François de Paule Lefèvre of Ormesson obtained from King Louis XV the elevation of his lands in marquisat, renamed the commune Ormesson. He entrusted the architect Antoine Matthieu Le Carpentier with the extension of the castle in a classic style, with a new building body on the garden side and modified roofs. The estate, then occupied by political figures such as Henri Lefèvre d'Ormesson (General Financial Controller under Louis XVI), went through the Revolution without major damage despite the temporary imprisonment of its owner under the Terror.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the castle remained in the Lefèvre d'Ormesson family, welcoming generations of magistrates, diplomats and writers. Wladimir d'Ormesson, mayor of the commune and ambassador, resided there until 1973 after having restored him and created a golf course there in 1925. The estate, classified as Historic Monument in 1889 and 1993, is now managed by a civil society led by Charles Peugeot, descendant of the family. Open to the public since 2015 during the Journées du Patrimoine, it retains its 140 hectares park, 66 of which are classified, and a piece of water fed by the Morbras.

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