Château du Nouvion-en-Thiérache dans l'Aisne

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Origin and history

The Nouvion-en-Thiérache Castle is located in the department of Aisne, in the heart of the ancient Duchy of Guise. His forest estate, formerly owned by Marie Stuart (whose mother was a Guise), then passed to the princes of Condé by inheritance. In 1830, the Duke of Aumale, the fourth son of Louis-Philippe, became his owner after receiving him from his uncle, the Duke of Bourbon. After his exile in 1848, he succinctly ceded the estate to the bank Seillière, which built there between 1853 and 1856 the present castle to house the offices of the forest administration.

The Duke of Aumale recovered the estate in 1872, benefiting from a new castle replacing the old residence in ruins of the Dukes of Guise. When he died in 1897, the estate returned to the Duke of Guise, subject to his father, the Duke of Chartres. The Duke of Guise settled in 1899 with his wife, Isabelle de France, daughter of Orléanist suitor Philippe VII. Two of their children, Princess Anne (future duchess of Aosta) and Prince Henri (future count of Paris), were born at the castle in 1906 and 1908. Prince Henri was baptized there in 1908 before the family left the Nouvion for Morocco in 1910.

During World War I, the castle was looted by the Germans. After the death of the Duke of Guise in 1940, the Count of Paris and his sisters inherited it. The roof, destroyed by a fire after 1945, was completely rebuilt. In 1980 the Count of Paris sold the castle to the city of Roubaix, which made it a children's centre. Returned in 2000 to a Belgian businessman, the forest estate was divided between the heirs of the Count of Paris after his death in 1999, Prince Jean, Duke of Vendôme, becoming the main owner.

Architecturally, the castle presents a symmetrical U-shaped plan, with a vaulted basement, a raised ground floor and two floors. It is covered with various roofs (long panels, half croupes, pavilions) and includes outbuildings such as the concierge and gardener's quarters. The whole reflects its initial use of forest administration, while bearing the legacy of the great French aristocratic families.

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