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Origin and history

Reynel Castle, located in the Haute-Marne 30 km north of Chaumont, occupies a steep spur which made it an advanced defence post from the Middle Ages, facing the Holy Empire and then Lorraine. The seigneury, erected in the county in 757 by Pépin the Brief and then in marquisat in 1560 by Francis II, belonged to the families of Joinville and d'Amboise. Ravaged by the Wars of Religion and the Thirty Years' War, the castle was in ruins in the seventeenth century.

In 1763 Claude-Adrien de la Rue, Count of Mareilles, acquired the site and had the medieval remains, except for a round tower, razed to rebuild between 1763 and 1772 the present building. The castle, in classic style, consists of a long house body flanked by two sided pavilions, with a terrace set up in the former dungeon location, offering views of a forested valley and a water body. In the 19th century, the Collin de Civry family, then the Counts of Beurges, made minor modifications, such as a pavilion between two round towers.

Filed with the additional inventory of historical monuments in 1989 for its facades, roofs and interior decorations (18th century windows, oval lounge, library), the castle is also linked to literary history: Alexandrine de Rohan-Chabot, wife of Count Henri de Beurges, received Mathilde Maute, wife of Paul Verlaine, who composed verses there. Since 1942, successive restorations have allowed its preservation, avoiding abandonment.

Protected features include the vaulted rooms of the northwest tower, the dining room and its living room overlooking the south terrace, as well as rooms and an old kitchen. Although the chapel has disappeared, the ensemble illustrates the evolution of a medieval fortress in aristocratic residence, marked by conflicts and reconstructions.

The commune of Reynel, in the Great East, thus preserves an architectural testimony of the border rivalries between kingdoms, transformed into a place of life and culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The family owners — from Mareilles, Collin de Civry, then from Beurges — marked its history, while its strategic location made it a military issue before becoming a preserved heritage.

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