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Origin and history

The Château des Cartières is a building built in the 4th quarter of the 17th century, then profoundly redesigned in the 19th century. It stands in the commune of Chaponost, in the Rhône department, in the heart of a flat terrain. Originally, the estate belonged to Antoine Cartier, a Lyon bourgeois, and his wife Catherine Pellissier. Their daughters, Françoise and Cécile Cartier, inherited it before Cécile left him in 1719 at the Hôpital de la Charité de Lyon, on condition that he did not sell it. Despite this clause, the property was sold in 1732 to Jean-Baptiste Chazattes, a Lyon merchant.

In 1774 the property passed into the hands of Barthélemy Cazot, whose family kept it until 1955. The estate was then transformed into a reception centre for the African Missions in Lyon. Architecturally, the castle forms a square with an inner courtyard, surrounded by commons built in the 19th century. The main house, originally equipped with a floor and a terrace, was raised and covered with a tiled roof. The park, wooded and extending over 12 hectares, completes the whole, today not open to the public.

The castle illustrates the evolution of Lyon bourgeois estates, moving from private residence to institutional use. Its history also reflects the successional dynamics and architectural transformations typical of the 17th to 18th centuries in the region. The archives mention its role in welcoming religious missions in the twentieth century, marking a transition to a charitable and spiritual vocation.

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