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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Milly Castle is a bourgeois house built in 1705 in the municipality of Milly-Lamartine, Saône-et-Loire. This simple, square, one-storey building has retained its original exterior appearance, although covered with greenery. Inside, the arrangement of the rooms was preserved as it was at the time when the poet Alphonse de Lamartine lived there, especially between 1794 and 1801, and then during one-off stays during the Restoration. This place, although private property, is open to visits on certain days of the year.

The house was at the heart of a vast fifty-hectare wine estate, spread over the municipalities of Milly, Berzé-la-Ville and Saint-Sorlin (now La Roche-Vieuse). Alphonse de Lamartine, Mayor of Milly-Lamartine, wrote famous works, including Milly or the Land of Birth (1826), a poem begging his father not to sell the house. Despite his deep attachment, financial difficulties forced him to separate from him in 1860 for 500,000 francs, a sale which he described as tearing, taking with him the memories of his mother and youth.

Ranked a Historical Monument in 1979 for its facades, roofs and entrance gate, the castle remains a literary and heritage symbol. He is associated with other Lamartinian residences such as Saint-Point and Monceau, although Milly was not his "natal land". Today, the site is visited on Sundays and public holidays between May and September, with possible guided tours by reservation the rest of the year.

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