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Origin and history

Buy Castle, located in the municipality of Antilly en Moselle, is attested as early as 1188. It stands outside the village, on departmental road 2 between Metz and Guénange. Its rectangular house, redesigned over the centuries, has been replaced by segment arched windows. The whole is lined with a wall of enclosure flanked by four square pavilions pierced with murderers, testifying to its defensive past. It has been included in the inventory of historic monuments since February 1997, and has retained protected features such as the Dangle Towers and a 17th-century well.

Originally, the castle belonged to the powerful Messina family of the Heu, lords of Ennery. In 1602, Nicole IV de Heu sold it to Jean de Saint-Aubin, a Protestant bourgeois of Metz, and to his wife Dorothée Le Duchat. The seigneury remained in the hands of reformed families in the 17th century, including the Saint-Aubin and the Maillet. A fortified double door, built in 1604 before the Thirty Years' War, carried the Latin inscription "Vive ut visas" ("Living Your Life"), suggesting an aborted convent project.

In the 18th century, the seigneury was divided between several owners, including Jean Tiersant (died 1713), Claude-Nicolas Perain de Buy (died 1760), and Jean-Nicolas-Étienne de Bock, lieutenant of the Marshals at Thionville. The latter owned half of the estate, including the castle surrounded by ditches. The other half belonged to Auguste-Charles-Louis Ancillon de Jouy, councillor in the Metz Parliament. In the 19th century, the castle passed by inheritance to the Counts of Vernou-Bonneuil. Restored after 1960, it will later house a discotheque, "Le Manoir", frequented by the Messina gay community before its definitive closure.

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