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Origin and history

Tauzia Castle, located in Gradignan en Gironde, is a cartreuse built around 1788 by master mason Jean Alary according to the plans of Victor Louis, emblematic architect of the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux. Sponsored by Jean-Joseph de Castéra, professor of law and lawyer in the Bordeaux Parliament, this residence replaces a fief acquired in 1768 from the family of Pomies. Its neoclassical architecture, centered on a dome rotunda, reflects the Bordeaux influence of the time, combining sobriety and elegance with stucco decorations and mosaic parquet.

In 1784, the estate was sold to Jacob Diaz Pereyra, a trader from the Portuguese Jewish community, and then sold in 1803-1804 to a customs director. In 1827 Gustave Petersen, consul of Sweden and Norway, acquired it and transformed it into a castle by adding an ion column porch, symmetrical wings and an English park of 20 hectares, designed by landscape architect Louis-Bernard Fischer. The latter, author of the renewal of the Bordeaux Public Garden, incorporates picturesque elements such as factories and winding alleys.

During the Second World War (1940-1944), the castle was occupied by German and Italian armies, then by the F.F.I. in 1944, leaving the building badly damaged. Abandoned until 1960, it was restored piece by piece by Hubert Calvet and his wife, before being classified as a historical monument in 1965. Its architecture, typical of Bordeaux Chartreuses, combines a building body on the ground floor, a central rotunda and side pavilions, while its park retains traces of its romantic furnishings.

Today, Tauzia Castle remains a major testimony of the Gothic neoclassical heritage, combining a turbulent history and architectural heritage. Its access, marked by an alley of centuries-old plane trees, leads to a facade decorated with ironwork and sculptures symbolizing the arts of fishing and gardening, reflecting the aesthetic tastes of the 19th century. The property, always private, illustrates the evolution of aristocratic residences into bourgeois country houses under the influence of European exchanges.

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