Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Castle of Bears, located in Argenvilliers in Eure-et-Loir, is a classical style building built between the second half of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century. It adopts a symmetrical rectangular plane, with a central body flanked by two square pavilions, each topped by a triangular pediment. The main façade, ordered to eleven spans, highlights a central forebody made of cut stone, framed with pillars and surmounted by a curved pediment. The entrance gives access to a monumental wooden staircase, while a third, more recent pavilion completes the whole to the south. The materials used – limestone for facades, sandstone for basements – and slate or flat tile roofs reflect the constructive techniques of the era.

The estate extends around the castle, including functional outbuildings such as a marery (grange and stables adorned with heads of ceramic horses), two dovecotes (one circular retaining its bolts and wooden staircase, the other square with an old aviary transformed into an orangery), as well as a masonry cooler in the undergrowth. Two round towers and a square tower delimit the property, girded with moat and accessible by a stonestone portal topped by a wrought iron grid with interlaced initials (PDM). The set illustrates the typical organisation of a seigneurial estate, combining aristocratic residence and farms.

The history of the site dates back to 1218, with the attestation of a farm in Oursières, but it was at the beginning of the seventeenth century that the Mauduson family, the king's advisers, began the construction of the castle. François-Jacques de Mauduison, treasurer of the Collège Saint-Jean de Nogent, is its main sponsor. The estate, which then extended over 300 hectares (compared to 17 today), had five farms and a chapel, blessed in 1707 but now disappeared. In the 18th century, the Maudusons developed a horse farm, adding the marery and a southern pavilion. Confiscated at the Revolution, the castle was bought by Marie-Antoinette de Meaussé, wife of the last emigrant heir. He then passed into the hands of the Mondésir, Marchandon families (responsible for the construction of a new dovecote and orangery in 1869), Montéage, then Morgan.

Ranked a historic monument since 1989 for its facades, roofs, towers, gate and ditches, the castle d'Oursières has been the object of a restoration campaign led by its current owner, Philippe Simon, since the 2000s. This heritage reflects both the classical architecture of France and the evolution of a seigneurial estate over nearly four centuries, marked by functional adaptations and changes of owners reflecting national historical upheavals.

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