Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Sainte-Assisi finds its origins in the priory of Saint-Acire, founded around 1135 under the invocation of Saint Acire, before becoming the royal abbey of Sainte-Acire. This priory, dependent on the Abbey of Cîteaux, was transferred in 1150 to a healthier site overlooking the Seine, in Barbeau. Louis VII offered land to the abbey, including the forests of Senart and Beaulieu, confirmed by Pope Alexander III in 1164. The initial priory, later renamed Sainte-Assisi, was moved for reasons of unsanitaryness.

At the beginning of the 17th century, Louis Lefèvre de Caumartin, seigneur of Saint-Port, acquired in 1608 the land of the priory of Saint-Acire by exchange with Abbé de Barbeau. He built a castle in the shape of a parallelogram, flanked by pavilions and terraces descending to the Seine, retaining only the original chapel. Henri IV then erected the seigneury of Saint-Port in a baronie. The estate then passed into the hands of several families, including the Benoist and La Chapelle, before being sold in 1700 to Jean Glucq, a Dutch industrialist.

Jean-Baptiste Glucq, son of Jean Glucq, heir to the château in 1709, made it a luxurious reception place, welcoming artists like Watteau and personalities close to Louis XV. He enlarged the castle after a royal visit, adding a pavilion to remedy the smallness of the dining room. Glucq, an enlightened patron, also acquired the library of Bernard de La Monnoye and bequeathed to his nephew, Jean-Baptiste-François de Montullé, an estate marked by festivals and an intense cultural life. A tragedy in 1773, the assassination of his gamekeeper, pushed Montullé to sell the castle.

In 1773, the estate was offered to Mme de Montesson, the morganatic wife of the Duke of Orléans, who organized shows there and received figures from the Lumières such as d'Alembert, Grimm or Laplace. She had two wings added to the castle and installed a fire pump to supply the gardens with water. In spite of her efforts, Marie-Antoinette refused to stop there, and the Duke of Orléans, who died there shortly afterwards, suffered deeply. After his death, the castle changed hands several times, including the Duchess of Kingston and Carvillon des Tillières, which divided the estate.

In the 19th century, the castle was partially demolished by entrepreneurs in 1807, before being bought by the Count of Pourtalès, then by the family of Beauvau-Craon, who kept it for a century. In 1922 Prince Charles-Louis de Beauvau-Craon sold it to the Compagnie Radio France, which installed a broadcasting station there. Since 1998, the site has been owned by the National Navy, which uses it to communicate with nuclear submarines via low frequencies.

The pavilion of Sainte-Assise, an outbuilding of the castle built on the banks of the Seine, housed personalities such as the American ambassador Governor Morris in 1796 or Alexandre Dumas Jr in 1855. This pavilion, bought by the family of Beauvau-Craon, was also occupied by relatives of Prince Marc, including the Duke of Guiche and the Count of Choiseul-Praslin, bearing the name of "the pavilion of Choiseul".

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