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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

Fransu Castle, located in the eponymous commune in the Hauts-de-France region, is a building built mainly between the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century. The main house body, made of brick and stone with a partially flint base, rises to the bottom of a courtyard closed by a wrought iron gate. Its central limestone forebody, marked with initials D and F (for Douville de Franssu), dates from about 1830. The estate includes commons, a former seigneurial farm, a closed vegetable garden, and a garden extended by an alley facing west, vestige of an 18th century park.

The present castle replaces an older building, mentioned in 1670, probably built at the initiative of Marie-Claude de Monchy, wife of Charles de Sailly. In 1737 Louis de Sailly sold the seigneury to Adrien Jacques Wignier, who established a modest residence there, accompanied by two wings of communes. The whole was partially burned in 1791 during the Revolution. In the 19th century, Armand Douville (1793-1845), then his son Henri Armand Douville de Franssu (1823-1870), undertook important works: the addition of the central vanguard body, the symetricisation of the pavilions, the expansion of the communes, and the reconstruction of the farm with industrial buildings (dillerie, oil factory).

The original medieval castle, located in the present park near Madame Street, was abandoned before the 16th century and destroyed after the Revolution. There is still a mouch (underground career) dug in the 16th or 17th centuries. The estate, marked by successive developments, is listed in the Historic Monuments in 2004 for its facades, roofs, gate of honor, park, vegetable garden and guardian's house. The traces of its evolution reflect the social and economic transformations of the rural nobility, from the Enlightenment to the Second Empire.

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