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Origin and history

The Château de Vaux-le-Pénil, located in Seine-et-Marne, was built in 1766 by Michel Louis Fréteau de Saint Just on Roman foundations attested since the year 1000. It succeeds three earlier buildings, including a feudal castle transformed into a Renaissance residence in the 16th century. The site, strategic near Melun, was a headquarters for Henry IV in 1590 and a place of resistance during the Wars of Religion.

In the 18th century, the Fréteau de Saint Just family marked the history of the castle: Emmanuel Marie Michel Philippe, deputy of the States General of 1789, was arrested there in 1794 before being guillotined. The estate, preserved until the 19th century by its descendants, welcomed in 1815 the Tsar Alexander I, who organized a banquet for its officers after the fall of Napoleon.

In the 19th century, the banker Michel Ephrussi enlarged the castle and installed 18th-century woodwork from Samuel Bernard's Parisian mansion. During the First World War, it housed Marshal John French, commander of British troops, where Joffre and French planned the Battle of the Marne in 1914. Occupied by the Germans in 1940, it became a place of artistic creation after 1944 with Salvador Dalí and Giorgio de Chirico, which decorated its rooms for an ephemeral Museum of Surrealism.

The undergrounds, rediscovered in 1976, reveal remains of the 11th and 12th centuries, as well as Roman foundations. The park, built in 1892 by the Duchêne brothers, extends over 13 hectares with centuries-old species. Today owned by an SCI, the castle, opened to the public since 1977, preserves archives covering a thousand years of history, from autographs to documents about its illustrious owners.

The 28-metre-long orangery and the nearby 11th century chapel complete the whole. The estate was also used as a setting for films such as La Folle Journée (1989) and Aurore (2006), while being cited in literary works such as Ken Follett's La Chute des giantes. Its history reflects the political and cultural upheavals of France, from Capetian kings to surrealist art.

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