Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Villemereuil Castle, located in the Aube department in the Grand East region, is a 16th and 17th century building. It consists of two 16th century chalk pavilions, remains of Foissy Castle, surrounded by ditches, and a main brick house body built in the 17th century in a Louis XIII style by Jean-Jérôme Molé. The estate, isolated in the middle of a large park, reflects the architectural and social evolution of the Champagne nobility.

In the 13th and 14th centuries, the seigneury of Villemereuil belonged to the Dinteville and Foissy families, who obtained permission at the beginning of the 16th century to equip their castle with a drawbridge. In 1656, Claude V Molé, from an influential family of Trojan traders, acquired the estate and undertook its reconstruction. His posthumous inventory (1660) reveals details about the layout and furniture of the period, illustrating the lifestyle of an ordinary King's mansion.

In the 17th century, the castle became the residence of Pierre-François Molé, captain of the regiment of Navarre, then of Jean-Jérôme Molé, lieutenant of the Marshals of France, who died there in 1727 without direct heir. The estate then passed into the hands of the Corberon family, and then of Marie Béatrice Dupré of Houville, who sold it in 1776 to Nicola Bonamy, ancestor of the present family. Since the 19th century, the castle has remained in the Bonamy descendants, including Gérard Bonamy de Villemereuil, the current mayor of the commune and resident of the place.

Ranked a historic monument in 1971 for its facades and roofs, Villemereuil Castle is a private property not open to the public. Its architecture combines the medieval remains of the chalk pavilions and the classical rigour of the brick house, testifying to the successive transformations carried out by its owners, linked to the political and economic history of Champagne.

External links