Château de Reuilly

Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de Reuilly was a former Merovingian royal residence, located in the current 12th arrondissement of Paris, at the location of nos 9 to 21 rue Érard. Built mainly of wood, this villa combined a farm (granges, silos, dovecotes) and a luxurious house decorated with frescoes and carpets. No material traces remain today, due to its perishable construction and the absence of preserved archives from the High Middle Ages.

According to the chronicles, King Dagobert I (629–639) repudiated his wife Gomatrude in 629, although the written sources were rare and sometimes contested. A 637 document mentions Ruilliacum, but it could refer to Reuilly in Indre, linked to the Berry. Dagobert subsequently acquired other residences (Clichy, Garches, Epinay-sur-Seine), gradually abandoning this site. After the Merovingians, the estate passed to the Templars (thirteenth century), then to the Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem, before returning to the French crown.

In 1359 King John II the Good promised to surrender the castle to Humbert, Patriarch of Alexandria, attesting his status as royal property at that time. The site, which is now extinct, left its name in the neighbourhood and at the Reuilly station, thus perpetuating its historical heritage in the Parisian landscape.

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