Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de la Petite Roseraie, located in Châtenay-Malabry (Hautes-de-Seine), is built in the seventeenth century. It belongs successively to prominent personalities such as the Marshal of Ségur, the Arouet (family of Voltaire), Prince Francesco Borghèse, and the Count of Boigne. His wife organized trade fairs with opponents of Napoleon, including Germaine de Staël, Benjamin Constant, and Châteaubriand. Voltaire even claims to be born there, a statement relayed by the Countess of Boigne in her memoirs.

In 1829, Alexander Roland-Gosselin, an agent of exchange, acquired the estate and expanded by buying the neighboring lands. He had the park built by landscape architect Louis-Sulpice Varé (1855), who also built an orange shop and a children's house (now a chapel in 1909). Roland-Gosselin brings together the house of the Arouet (demolia) and the communes, restored in an italianist style. After his death in 1866, his granddaughter, Marie-Alexandrine Roland-Gosselin, erected an orphanage for young girls (1873–75).

The estate was purchased by the State in 1941 to install the École normale supérieure d'éducation physique féminine (future CREPS). Since 1946, its facades, roofs, two walled rooms, the entrance gate and the park have been classified as historical monuments. Today, it still houses the CREPS, after the partial demolition of its dependencies in the years 1945.

The site preserves traces of its prestigious past: the staircase of the Arouet garden, restored commons, and orangery. The protected elements also include facade statues and a stained glass window in the old chapel. Its history thus combines architectural heritage, social life of the nineteenth century, and educational heritage.

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