Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Saulxures Castle, called 'Vosgian Versailles', was built between 1854 and 1861 under the Second Empire by architect Charles Perron, at the request of Élisabeth Géhin, widow of Jean-Thiébaut Géhin, pioneer of the local textile industry. This Louis XV-style monument, decorated with marbles, sculptures and ceilings painted by Felix Haffner, symbolizes the prosperity of the Vosges during the industrial era. Its exorbitant cost (2 million francs) reflects the ambition to honor a prematurely disappeared husband, mayor and general councillor, whose spinnings made the reputation of Vosges calicots.

The interiors, furnished by the house Jeanselme (supplier of the courses of Louis-Philippe I and Napoleon III), competed with luxury: marquetry parquets, marble fireplaces of Carrare, and grills inspired by the Place Stanislas in Nancy. Four cariatids and atlantes, works by sculptor Georges Clère (collaborator of the Louvre), decorated the perron, while two glass windows linked the central body to the outbuildings. Partially classified in 1984, the castle, abandoned since 1972, now suffers the outrages of time, despite a structure in granite and pink sandstone still solid.

The castle welcomed notable figures such as Adolphe Thiers, Gabriel Pierné or Lise Deharme, and served as a refuge during the Liberation in 1944. After the war, it still housed the PC of the 3rd DIA, visited by the generals of Lattre de Tassigny and Gaulle. Despite aborted restoration projects (including an ex officio ranking envisaged in 1983), its rescue faces legal and financial obstacles. The prototypes of the cariatides, preserved at the Louvre, bear witness to its fascinating past.

Today at risk, the castle provokes a local and national mobilization, led by associations such as Les Amis du château and initiatives such as Stéphane Bern's mission on monuments in danger. Its future will depend on a legal solution (sale, expropriation or emphyteotic lease) and cross-financing (state, patronage, defiscalisation). The preliminary studies stress the need to reconcile respectful restoration and adapted reuse, in a balance between historical memory and economic viability.

The architecture of the castle, with its facades inscribed in the Historical Monuments, its outbuildings and its park, embodies the alliance between industrial and artisanal heritage. Painted ceilings, tapestries and sculptures, although degraded, offer potential for reconstruction. The site, open to the public during one-off events, could find a cultural or tourist vocation, provided that it stabilizes its condition (water out, saltpeter treatment) and secures the looted interiors.

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