Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de Villebon-sur-Yvette came into being in 1056, when Fromund de Paris, the first seigneur of the place, received the detached estate of Palaiseau. His son Aszo de Villabona erected a fortified farm with defensive underground. Transmitted without major modification to the following generations (Gautier then Hugues de Villebon), the estate passed in 1474 to the De Thou family. Jacques de Thou, a lawyer at the Paris Parliament, became its owner, marking the beginning of a major architectural transformation.

In 1512, Augustin de Thou, dissatisfied with the residence considered "old-fashioned and humid", built a Renaissance castle composed of three pavilions and an elegant gallery, of which today remains the Henry IV pavilion. In 1587 Nicolas de Thou, bishop of Chartres, added a chapel dedicated to the Saints Como and Damien near the gate. A fire ravaged the central body in 1611. Jacques-Auguste de Thou then entrusted his reconstruction to Louis Métezeau, architect of Henry IV, but the works remained unfinished. The estate was sold in 1620 to André Potier de Novion, who completed the renovation by combining the Renaissance wings with a new building and enlarged the chapel, which became parish seat.

The 17th century was marked by disturbances: looting during the Fronde (1649), then renovation of the outer wings in 1656 by Nicolas Potier de Novion. The estate then changed hands several times: acquired in 1696 by Hubert de Champy (intendant of the navy), then by Guillaume Delors de Serignan in 1704, before moving to the marquesses of Pertuis and Pracomtal. Saved by the Revolution with the exception of a search, he was bought in 1806 by Count Alfred-Félix de Montesquiou-Fezensac, who built an orangery and a presbytery there. In 1832, the Baron de Nivière added a dovecote before his descendants sold the estate in 1920.

In the 20th century, the castle became in 1920 the seat of the École de l'Île-de-France, a boarding school for boys, before a fire in 1933 (Sully hill) forced its closure. Repurchased in 1937 by the Congregation of Saint Vincent de Paul, it housed a retirement home for Lazarist brothers until 1994, and a spiritual retreat centre. Today, the site also hosts a private Catholic college-lycée. Today's architecture mixes Renaissance remains (Liancourt and Henri IV, Sully Gate) with neoclassical additions (orangery, dovecote), in a park of 25 hectares organized around lawns, historical alleys (François I, Henri IV), and a lake fed by a legendary spring.

The park, initially from 200 hectares reduced to 25 today, preserves remarkable landscape elements: two large alleyways, an unusual gate of honor, and a source associated with the legend of Saint Geneviève. The Château d ́eau (16th century), the orangery transformed into a gymnasium, and the pigeon house (19th century) bear witness to the functional evolution of the estate. Ranked in Hurepoix country, on the banks of the Yvette, the castle illustrates almost a thousand years of seigneurial, educational and religious history, only up until the far from Paris.

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