Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Bernis, located in Sathonay-Village in the metropolis of Lyon, was built in 1852 for Oscar Louis Auguste Galline, banker and vice-consul of Switzerland in Lyon. This eclectic castle, combining stone and brick, consists of a two-storey main house and a L-shaped pavilion, offering stunning views of the Saône valley. Its architecture is distinguished by facades decorated with triangular or circular frontons, and balustrade balconies, reflecting the bourgeois taste of the Second Empire.

The estate, originally owned by Oscar Galline, passed on to his daughter-in-law Henriette Thomas (known as Henriette Thomas-Galline), who married Pierre, Count of Pierre de Bernis, mayor of Sathonay in 1872. Their daughter, Marie Suzanne de Pierre de Bernis, in turn inherits the castle before it was acquired by the commune in 1952. Since 1965, the castle has housed the town hall of Sathonay-Village, while maintaining its landscaped park and outbuildings, including a chalet.

The castle park, hilly and wooded, adjoins the village church and offers a panorama of the Lyon mountains. Interior developments have evolved to adapt to its municipal use, but the architectural and landscape ensemble remains representative of the bourgeois residences of the nineteenth century in the Lyon region. The initials "O" and "C" (for Oscar Galline) always adorn the central pediment, reminding its first owner.

The archives also mention General Joseph Victor Thomas, first husband of the second wife of Oscar Galline, whose daughter Henriette became by marriage Countess of Pierre de Bernis. This family bond illustrates alliances between economic, military and aristocratic elites under the Second Empire. The bibliography cites works on General Thomas and on the Lyon bosses of that time, highlighting the local anchor of this history.

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