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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

Thoré Castle is a bourgeois residence built between 1893 and 1894 in Aussillon, Tarn, for the industrial Armand Puech by architect Jules Pheulpin. Inspired by the plans of the house of the fields proposed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in his book Histoire d'une maison (1873), the castle retains its original decoration and incorporates technical innovations for the period, such as a hydroelectric installation and a drinking water filtration system designed by Puech himself. The English-speaking park, built on former swamps, includes water rooms, pipes and a central island.

The castle reflects the industrial influence of its sponsor, Armand Puech (1846-1917), associated in a cloth factory and inventor of a water filter patented in 1890. This process, tested in the home, was to be adopted by Paris and other cities. The property, built on the estate of Métairie Neuve brought in dowry by the wife of Puech, Adrienne Tournier, also illustrates the links between the Mazametane industrial elites. Local materials ( Pont-de-Larn gneiss, Vicat cement or Portland) and bolted metal frame are evidence of modern techniques of the time.

Ranked a historical monument in 2007 for its castle and park (including the water room and its island), the site preserves an architecture faithful to the precepts of Viollet-le-Duc, with a main body on four levels, a quadrangular tower, and reception rooms enfilade. The interior distribution, the bowl-windows, and the commons (kitchens, lingerie, independent stables) reveal a domestic organization typical of bourgeois residences of the late nineteenth century. The absence of a winter garden, originally planned, and the choice of separating the stables from the main body, mark voluntary deviations from theoretical models.

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