Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de Briord was built in 1770 in Port-Saint-Père, Loire-Atlantique, for Joseph de Charette. It replaces an ancient medieval building, the seat of the seigneury of Briord, attested from 1225 and belonging to families such as the Rezay or the Landes. This seigneury exercised a right of justice over ten parishes between 1437 and the French Revolution.

In 1800, the castle was acquired by the Dutch shipowner Dubois-Violette, who kept it until 1833. He then passed to the Count of Lautrec, general of the armies of the King of the Two Sicilies, who added a tower around 1860. The estate was modified by the following owners, including Jean-Baptiste Étienne, heir to industrialist Jean-Simon Voruz, who died there in 1896.

The castle, awarded for its interior decoration at the Universal Exhibition of 1900, remains in the Étienne family and then their descendants, the Say, nantese sugar industry. In 1980, it was listed as a historical monument. In 2022, Éric Peters, a Parisian entrepreneur, acquired the opportunity to restore and open it to the public, with a project of preservation faithful to his condition of the 1930s. The Saint-Germain chapel, built in the 18th century, is one of the first planned renovations.

The estate is exceptionally open to the public in September 2022 during European Heritage Days. Eric Peters wants to make it a place of memory and sharing, without altering its historical authenticity.

External links