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Origin and history

The château de la Bachasse is located on the heights of Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, facing the river Yzeron. Its name evokes an old pond (or bachasse) dug in the courtyard of the original farm. The estate, mentioned in the 18th century, belonged in 1732 to Pierre Giry, knight and Baron of Vaux, and in 1784 to Antoine Héris, Lyon bourgeois. These lands reflect the influence of local elites linked to the silk industry, Lyon's major economic sector at that time.

In the 19th century, the estate changed hands several times in the middle of the silky Lyons. In 1831 Jean-Baptiste Gerbes de Tours, a silk merchant, acquired the premises. His son-in-law, Antoine Alexandre Giraud, married Pauline Gerbes de Tours in 1827 and decided, around the middle of the century, to build the present castle. The works, conducted between 1880 and 1890 by architects Turbet and Alexis Tissot, gave rise to a rectangular building flanked by square pavilions, typical of bourgeois eclectic architecture of the period.

The castle remained in the Giraud family until 1947, when Noémie Giraud, widow of Henri Mathei de Valfons, sold it to SNCF. In 1986, the estate (outside the castle) was entrusted to the SNCF regional works council, and in 1998 the management of the castle was transferred to the AGEFOREL. Today, the site hosts events and an annual brocante, while remaining accessible to railway workers. The 8,2-hectare wooded park and preserved architecture (forged iron staircases, facades) bear witness to its aristocratic and industrial past.

The present neoclassical castle replaces an old mansion whose ruins were demolished in 1965. Its double-flyed porch, slate roofs and skylights illustrate the splendor of the nineteenth-century Lyon bourgeois residences. Some elements, such as the gate on street and stairway, have been protected under the Historic Monuments since 1982.

The estate is part of the economic history of Lyon, linked to silk, and the social transformations of the 19th century, where the industrial bourgeoisie marks the landscape with sumptuous residences. The SNCF, by becoming owner, has preserved this heritage while giving it a social and eventful vocation.

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