Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Buchillot Castle, located in Boulogne-Billancourt, is an old madness built in the 18th century, probably around 1730 for the Meulan family by an unidentified architect. This building, typical of the peri-urban recreational residences of the time, was profoundly renovated in the 19th century by James de Rothschild, then owner of the estate. Originally integrated into the vast ensemble of Rothschild Castle, it became an addiction before being isolated and classified as a Historic Monument in 1951 for its facades and roofs.

In March 2007, the children of Paul Belmondo – Jean-Paul, Alain and Muriel – donated 259 sculptures, 444 medals and nearly 900 drawings of their father, a 20th century major sculptor, to the city of Boulogne-Billancourt. This fund, supplemented by notebooks and preparatory studies, allowed the creation of a museum dedicated to the restored castle. The building, then empty shell despite its ranking, benefited from external rehabilitation and contemporary interior development (2007–2010) at a cost exceeding 2.7 million euros.

The Paul-Belmondo Museum, inaugurated during the Heritage Days in September 2010, was designed by architects Karine Chartier and Thomas Corbasson. Its muséographical path, sleek and tactile, reconstructs the sculptor's workshop and highlights leading works like Young Girl on the move. Emmanuel Bréon, curator and specialist of Belmondo, played a key role in this project, supported for years by Jean-Paul Belmondo. The works, initially stored at the Thirty Years Museum of the city, finally found a suitable setting.

Ranked a historic monument since 1951 for its exterior elements (facades and roofs), the castle of Buchillot illustrates the evolution of the aristocratic residences of the Hauts-de-Seine, from the status of madness of the eighteenth century to that of municipal museum to the twenty-first. Its official address, 10–12 rue de l'Abreuvoir, makes it a central place of the Boulogne-Billancourt heritage, between local memory and national artistic influence.

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