Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Abbey Castle, also known as Cysoing Castle, was built in the early 19th century in the park of the former Saint-Calixte Abbey, destroyed during the Revolution. The Lille lawyer Philippe Joseph Riquet, who acquired two-thirds of the abbatial land sold as national property, built around 1800 a pavilion inspired by the Petit Trianon de Versailles. The facade, decorated with four colossal ionic columns and a curvilinear pediment, contrasts with an interior organized in rooms typical of the 18th century madness. The materials come in part from the ruins of the abbey, whose abbey wall was integrated into the structure.

Between 1824 and 1886, the park was redesigned in romantic style, with winding alleys, basins and dense massifs, forming a plant maze called The Labyrinth until the 20th century. In 1907, architect Léonce Hainez, known for the Sébastopol Theatre in Lille, modernized the castle in a revised neoclassical style, adding central heating, running water and a high-rise flat. These changes, despite tensions with the owner Noblet, led to the current appearance of the building, which was listed as a historic monument in 2008.

The 2.5-hectare park preserves remains of the abbey: an 18th-century grid, two pools (former monastic basins), caves built with abbatial lapidary elements, and an island housing a chapel. The pyramid of Fontenoy, erected in honour of Louis XV after his stay in 1744, commemorates this royal passage. Ranked a historic monument in 1840, it was restored in 1888 by Charles Marteau, who restored his missing dolphins.

The history of the castle is linked to that of the abbey founded in the 9th century by Saint Evrad. In the 18th century, two ponds and islands with chapels were built in the abbatial enclosures. After the Revolution, the site was fragmented and sold. Riquet, ruined, sold the castle in 1816 to Charles-Lucien Lipsin-Caccant, then to Augustin-Hubert-Joseph Charvet in 1819. The latter, perhaps at the origin of the romantic park, sold the estate in 1838, causing local indignation at the threat of displacement of the pyramid. The Northern General Council then purchased the plot to preserve it.

In the 20th century, the castle changed hands several times. The Ernoult family (1919–43) carried out additional works there through architect Jean-Baptiste Maillard. Today, the estate belongs to the Public Land Establishment (EPF) on behalf of the municipality of Cysoing. It plans to set up the town hall, a media library, and open the park to the public, while restoring the radiant alleys around the pyramid. The castle, symbol of the local heritage, thus embodies the transition between the monastic heritage and the architectural transformations of the 19th and 20th centuries.

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