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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The castle of Anjou, located in the municipality of the same name in Isère (region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), is an 18th century building partially transformed in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is distinguished by its 10-hectare park and outbuildings, including a ballroom and a theatre. The estate, registered with historical monuments in 2009, retains a variety of architectural elements: a neo-Gothic chapel, 17th century murals, and decorations signed by landscape architects Henri and Achille Duchêne.

Acquired in 1794 by the Jourdan family, the castle initially housed a factory of sheets, now disappeared. Sébastien Jourdan, then his descendants, marked the history of the place. The Duchêne, which took place around 1887, restored the vestibule and renovated the gardens, mixing 18th century heritage and landscape creations. The park, divided between regular garden and landscaped area, incorporates remains of old buildings and a preserved hydraulic system.

The official protections cover the facades, roofs, remarkable interiors (forged iron staircase, large dining room, painted room), as well as the outbuildings and park with its masonry elements. The castle, open to the public, visually dialogue with the castle of Albon, on the other side of the Valloire valley. The aviaries, once present, have now disappeared, but the estate remains a testament to local architectural and industrial developments.

Among the interior spaces, the basement room, adorned with 17th century paintings, and the old music salon decorated by Henri Duchêne, illustrate the superposition of the eras. The vegetal stained glass windows of the large hall and the working structure of the outbuildings complete this eclectic heritage. The castle thus embodies both the aristocratic heritage of the eighteenth century and the transformations associated with industrialisation and then bourgeois beautification of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

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