Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de Saint-Lambert, located in Marvejols in the department of Lozère (Occitanie region), is a monument dating back to the 3rd quarter of the 18th century, with major transformations completed at the end of the 19th century. Originally, the estate consisted of a small square building with a round tower, a garden, a pool and a mill. Between 1760 and 1770, a first enlargement campaign almost doubled the size of the castle, keeping the north and south facades aligned while adding a floor. The construction site remains unfinished, leaving a visible asymmetry in the roofs and the height of the buildings.

In 1762-1763, work concentrated on the extension of the castle, but dissymmetry persisted until 1881, when architect Rey intervened to standardize the whole. The round tower is preserved, the windows are harmonized with the 18th century style, and a single roof now covers the building. The interiors, described in inventories of 1744 and 1776, reveal remarkable decorations: gypsum or marble fireplaces, paintings on the top of doors, gilded hazes, and walls covered with damas in certain rooms such as the "red room". These elements illustrate the refinement of a provincial home of the time.

The estate also extended with the construction of a farm in 1777, replacing the former low yard with a wing in return for a square. The gardens, renovated in the 19th century, combine geometric paths and an "English garden" accessible by a terrace and a central staircase, as shown in Hugonet's plan (1837). A pool and drainage channels, always visible, complete this landscaped ensemble. The castle, its outbuildings and its gardens have been listed as historical monuments since 2010, offering an intact testimony to the architectural and social evolution of a rural property between the former Regime and the Third Republic.

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