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Origin and history

The Château de Pourtalès, located in the eponymous park north-east of the Robertsau in Strasbourg, was originally owned by Joseph Guérault, an 18th-century fortification contractor. In 1784 he moved to the Baron of Coehorn and was acquired in 1802 by the banker Athanase Paul Renouard de Bussierre. His son, Alfred Renouard de Bussière, made changes there in 1844, before the estate was inherited by Mélanie de Pourtalès, wife of Edmond de Pourtalès-Gorgier, who transformed him deeply between 1887 and 1902.

Under Mélanie de Pourtalès, the castle became a high place of European diplomacy and a home of French culture during the German annexation (1870-1918). She received personalities such as Napoleon III, the Prince of Metternich, or Franz Liszt, and had a second floor built in 1897 and a library tower built in 1907. The English-speaking park hosts theatre performances such as Les Folies amourées in 1911, attracting illustrious guests such as Guillaume II or Albert Schweitzer.

After the death of Mélanie in 1914, his daughter Agnes, Marquise de Loÿs-Chandieu, perpetuates this tradition by welcoming literary and political figures (Joseph Joffre, François Mauriac, Anna de Noailles). In 1929, the castle passed to her daughter, Mme Maurice Bérard, who closed it in 1939. After the Second World War, it housed the College of Free Europe (founded in 1951 by the CIA), then in 1972 became a campus of Schiller International University, while its park, bought by the city, opened to the public.

The estate includes outbuildings such as the Bussierre farm, today dedicated to the green spaces of Strasbourg. A drama marks its history in 2001, when the fall of a plane tree during a show causes the death of 13 spectators. The castle, registered with historical monuments since 1984, combines architectural heritage, diplomatic memory and contemporary tragedy.

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