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Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Poey-de-Lescar is an ancient domengeadure (noble estate of Bearnais) belonging to the family of the Hall, one of the oldest local lines. In 1757 she sold it to Dominique de Pont-Pedeprat, a prosecutor in the Parliament of Navarre. Thanks to the legacy of his uncle Pierre Pedeprat, enriched in the trade of silver ingots between Andalusia and the Americas, Dominique de Pont-Pedeprat had the old castle razed and rebuilt in 1763.

The castle crossed without harm the French Revolution and the 19th century, remaining in the same family. At the beginning of the 20th century, he changed ownership several times before being acquired in the 1930s by François Villa, heir to the Villa Bank. The latter undertook a major restoration under the direction of architect Jules-Antoine Noutary and had a 20-hectare park built by Descorges, a landscaper who died shortly after the construction was completed.

This monument thus illustrates the architectural and social transformations of the Béarn between the Ancien Régime and the 20th century, mixing aristocratic heritage, colonial enrichment and bourgeois patronage.

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