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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de La Motte-Tilly was born in the Middle Ages, with a feudal motte mentioned in 1369, probably linked to a ford on the Seine. This first castle, owned by the lords of Trainel and then the Raguier families, of Elbeyne and Bournonville, was razed in the 18th century to give way to the present residence. In 1710, the estate passed to the Noailles by marriage, before being erected in 1712 by Louis XIV as a reward for the services of Adrien Maurice de Noailles, future Marshal of France.

The construction of the present castle began in 1754 under the direction of architect François-Nicolas Lancret, for the Terray brothers, including Abbé Joseph Marie Terray, future chief financial officer of Louis XV. Designed as a country and hunting residence, the building has maintained an unchanged facade since the 18th century, despite the destruction of the communes in 1813 for financial reasons. The park, originally French, was transformed into an English garden in 1784, before being restored in the 20th century.

The castle, spared by the Revolution but occupied in 1814 by the Cossacks, suffered damage during the two world wars: requisition by the Germans and then the Americans in 1944, without recorded flights. Ranked a historic monument in 1946, it was seriously affected by the storm of 1999, which destroyed 70% of its forest. His history was marked by influential owners, such as the Terray, guillotined in 1794, or the Rohan-Chabot, who restored him in the 20th century before leaving him to the state in 1972.

Since 1978, the castle has been open to the public and managed by the National Monuments Centre. The Marquise de Maillé, the last private owner, imposed that the place remained furnished and "inhabited" by the spirit of its former occupants. The estate, with its 1,080 hectares, gardens and canal, illustrates the evolution of aristocratic tastes, from the Lights to the present day. He also served as a stage for the 1989 film Valmont de Miloš Forman.

The architecture and interiors, preserved despite historical hazards, reflect the fascist of the eighteenth century. The successive protections (1943 for the commons, 1946 for the whole) underline its heritage importance. Today, the castle embodies both a testimony of nobility under the Ancien Régime and an example of safeguarding the French heritage.

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