Château de Villers-Saint-Paul dans l'Oise

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Origin and history

Villers-Saint-Paul Castle, also known as Mortefontaine Castle, has its origins in the Middle Ages with the construction of a castle by local lords. Villers-Saint-Paul's family owned it until its extinction around 1650, when the estate passed into the hands of notables such as Jean Bardeau, treasurer general of Finance under Henry III, Henri IV and Louis XIII, and then Jean du Four, acquirer of the fief in 1673. The castle changed hands several times in the 18th century, marking a period of major architectural transformations.

In 1703 the seigneury was divided between the Duchess of Verneuil and the house of Condé. Louis IV Henri de Bourbon-Condé, minister of Louis XV, became seigneur in 1710 before his son, Louis V Joseph, transferred the estate in 1741 to Étienne Hardy du Plessis. He sold it in 1772 to Antoine de Sartine, Secretary of State for the Navy, who undertook a partial reconstruction. The castle was then acquired by Ange-Joseph Aubert, jeweller of the Crown, then by Marc-Antoine Randon de La Tour, treasurer general of the Maison du Roi, who built it entirely before being guillotined in 1794.

In the 19th century, the castle became the property of Marshal Gérard, president of the council under the monarchy of July, and then passed to his descendants, including the Count of Archiac, mayor of Villers-Saint-Paul. After successive occupations (German army during the Second World War, vocational school), the castle, classified as a historical monument in 1929, was abandoned, squatted and finally razed in 1971. Today, a lodge house occupies its location.

The estate covered 40 hectares, including a landscaped park with canals, a pond and a wooded island, fed by the waters of the Brèche. The castle, in white stone, had a sober style with a central pavilion, pediment windows and imposing fireplaces. An alley of lime trees once linked the park to the church of Nogent-sur-Oise, testifying to its integration into the local landscape.

The destruction of the castle in 1971 marked the end of a rich architectural heritage, despite its classification in 1929. Only a residence called "Domain du château" and the Tulips' alley today recall its existence. The archives, like those of Émile Lambert (1967), preserve the memory of this emblematic place of Oise, linked to the political and social history of France from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries.

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